In this week’s GLC, Patrick Belser discusses the findings of the Global Wage report, a publication released on the 5th of December 2014 by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Belser divides the report into sections, where he starts by dealing with an “…evolution of real wages around the world” and then “examines the link between wages and household income inequality, and also looks at wage gaps between certain groups: women and men; migrants and nationals; workers in the formal and the informal economy.” 

Drawing on the findings of the report, Belser shows that post the financial crisis “wage growth in developed economies almost stands at zero, and global wages are growing by 2 per cent.” At the same time the report shows a growth of high inequality in most societies. Belser shows that the Global Wage Report suggests redistribution “…through fiscal policies, with more progressive taxation and some targeted tax-reductions or positive tax-credits to low-income households…” as one of the policy methods of dealing with inequality. 

Patrick Belser is Senior Economist at the ILO and the principal editor of the ILO Global Wage Report. 

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