Di prossima pubblicazione in Caruso B., Fontana G. (a cura di), Lavoro e diritti nella crisi europea. Un confronto fra costituzionalisti e giuslavoristi, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2014.

Historical experiences teach that economic crisis weakens the right to fair wage, as earnings become a “dependent variable” of the economic context. The essay deals with the current legal developments of wage regulation in the context of the deep and prolonged economic and financial crisis. The analysis shows that the crisis affects the right to wage in a double sense: i) its strictly economic effect (recession) has caused a significant cut of minimum wages in a lot of European States and a need for a greater connection between productivity and pay; ii) the second level effect (public debt) has prepared the ground for a longtime wage freezing in the public employment sector. So far, the multilevel jurisprudence (EU Court of Justice, national High Courts and European Court of Human Rights) was quite cautious in detecting infringements of workers’ fundamental rights, by using the flexible principle of proportionality as a tool for validating national regressive legislation in a context of outstanding crisis.