According to recent research, wages are still at the top of the list of the factors why people work and choose specific jobs. However, other factors, such as well-being and flexibility, can also determine job satisfaction. Adecco’s Global Workforce of the Future Survey 2022 shows that 46 per cent of all workers surveyed chose their current job for their salary and benefits. 

In the same direction, a recent Ius Laboris survey of HR leaders also identifies wages as the main driver for recruitment and retention.

The report begins with an introduction to wages and the regulatory frameworks, highlighting that equal pay regulations - where agency workers earn wages that align with the wages of comparable workers at the user firm - already exist. This ensures that workers doing similar activities to directly employed workers are remunerated comparably and guarantees that no agency worker may be deployed to undercut the wage floors on national, sectoral, occupational, or enterprise levels.

The report describes agency work as a triangular model of employment and labour market flexibility, underlining that wage floors apply to agency workers.

It examines data from the Adecco agency work population from 17 countries and analyses how these wages compare to minimum and average standards in these labour markets.

The survey shows that Adecco associates are paid significantly above the minimum wage (more than 2.5 times the national minimum wage).

Other benefits vary from one country to another and even from one company or industry to another. Still, agency workers are generally treated equally with user company workers concerning access to mandatory social security benefits such as unemployment insurance, maternity benefits, and labour-related sickness or disability.

The report concludes with an examination of the possible impact on temporary workers’ pay - of the current cost-of-living crisis and current political and regulatory developments, stressing that much will depend on the ability of policy to contain inflation and on the social partners to balance wages with productivity growth.

On this point, it will be necessary to monitor the implementation by the EU member states of the European minimum wage directive, which was approved,as we previously reported, at the beginning of October 2022 and is to be implemented by October 2024.

Here you can find a general overview of global wages as reported in the recent ILO Global Wage 2022-2023.