Extract of the Introduction

The European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), endorsed jointly by the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission on 17 November 2017, reaffirmed a series of guaranteed rights for workers and citizens in the European Union (EU). The new European Commission, which took office on 1 December 2019, geared its work programme to the effective implementation of the principles set out in the EPSR (von der Leyen 2019). A number of initiatives were announced, including the development of European frameworks for minimum wages and guaranteed minimum incomes, the strengthening of collective bargaining and the roles of the social partners. The Covid‑19 pandemic put the establishment of European Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE)1 back on the agenda (see also Myant, this volume), an idea already floated by the previous Commission in response to the 2008 economic and financial crisis (European Commission 2020a). Furthermore, the idea of developing a European minimum wage framework has sparked lively discussions and renewed interest in the relationship between low wages and in-work poverty (Eurofound 2020a; Müller and Schulten 2020a). People in in-work poverty – both (low-paid) working individuals and members of households with a total disposable income below the at risk-of-poverty threshold – are the focus of these discussions.