Vaughan-Whitehead, Danie --- "Inequalities Before and After the Crisis: What Lessons for Social Europe?" [2011] ELECD 882; in Moreau, Marie-Ange (ed), "Before and After the Economic Crisis" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Before and After the Economic Crisis

Editor(s): Moreau, Marie-Ange

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849809924

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Inequalities Before and After the Crisis: What Lessons for Social Europe?

Author(s): Vaughan-Whitehead, Danie

Number of pages: 18

Extract:

3. Inequalities before and after the
crisis: what lessons for Social
Europe?
Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead

INTRODUCTION

While growing inequalities have been a major policy concern over the past
decade (ILO, 2008), the current crisis ­ the most serious since 1929 ­ may
have exacerbated the problems. Clearly, different categories of workers
have different degrees of vulnerability to the consequences of the crisis,
both direct ­ restructuring, lay-offs and falling wages ­ and indirect ­ dete-
riorating working conditions, less access to social dialogue and so on. The
issue of inequalities is also relevant for economic recovery. Many econo-
mists have emphasized that the crisis may be partly due to the unequal
redistribution of growth; this would mean that the issue of inequalities
should definitely be addressed in order to allow European and non-Euro-
pean economies to move towards recovery and, even more importantly,
sustainable growth.
In this chapter, we address the issue of inequalities before the crisis,
before giving the first results of research into inequalities during the crisis.
We conclude with some policy recommendations that would make it easier
to address work inequalities in the European policy context.


TRENDS IN INEQUALITIES BEFORE THE CRISIS

When we look at the period since the mid-1990s we can see that the
European area has generally been characterized by growing inequalities,
with at least five major trends particularly catching the eye.




40
 Inequalities before and after the crisis 41

105
100
95
90
85
80
Change in real wages (%)




75
70
65
60
55
50
...