Europe's Un-Egalitarian Labor Laws

European socialists exhibit great pride in the continent's labor laws. For the followers of Marx, the labor laws enacted over decades by left-wing governments supposedly speak to the continent's enlightened regard for the "rights" or the workers and for a more socially just, egalitarian society.

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If only. Putting aside how immoral a burden labor laws are - they ascribe unwarranted rights to workers at the cost of stripping the actual rights of businessmen - and concentrating solely on their practical effects, one can see that European labor laws are one of the most un-egalitarian laws ever enacted by Western governments. European labor laws are elitist for they secure benefits for the upper and middle-class at great cost for the lower-class.

Labor contract laws make it hard to fire workers, even with a good reason. Thus employers - justifiable fearful - hire cautiously and infrequently to avoid having to put with dead-weight - so to speak - in terms of unneeded or unproductive workers. What is established is a two-tier labor market. While college graduates find it easy to obtain almost-permanent labor contracts, the unskilled workers are often confined to short-term contracts. The unskilled have to prove themselves and in a free market system they are allowed to rise on their abilities. But in such a fargmented system, the unskilled are often denied the ability to prove themselves to employers and this get shuffled from one short-term job to another. The unemployment that North Africans face is France is due precisely to this.

Further, to make matters worse; the elite upper-tier of workers have the power to demand very generous benefits. But how do employers pay for these? But cutting short-term jobs. Thus benefits for the top comes at the cost of unemployment for the bottom. Can you think of a more un-egalitarian, anti-just and elitist system?

This is exactly what is happening in Spain now. Spain has the Europe's highest unemployment rate at 18%. You would think that with such a surplus of unemployed workers and a shrinking GDP, pay rises would be hard to come by? But not for job-protected workers. Metal workers with almost-permanent outside of Madrid have secured a 3% pay rise in real terms. In fact, similar workers have also secured pay raises that are the highest in 12 years in a time of great economic peril. What does this mean? Employers in essence forced into pay rises have to cut costs elsewhere. And where do they cut costs? The Economist concludes: "Pay rises for some have led employers to cut the jobs of others. Two-thirds of workers have armour-clad permanent contracts. But the rest are on short-term deals. They are the people now on the dole."

The European socialists must feel so proud of the "just" and "fair" system they have created. Balancing pay rises for the elite on the backs of the unemployed.