Cyprus is ranked fourth among EU countries with workers receiving poverty-level pay and who are among 35 million of the poorest Europeans who can’t afford a summer holiday.
This is what latest European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) shows amid the campaign to strengthen the EU’s wages directive.
The worst situation is in Greece where 88.9% of people living at risk of poverty couldn’t afford a break, followed by Romania (86.8%), Croatia (84.7%), Cyprus (79.2%) and Slovakia (76.1%).
While access to holidays has grown over the last decade, the majority of low income families remain excluded, ETUC data also shows.
Overall, 28% of EU citizens can’t afford a one-week holiday away from home – but that rises to 59.5 for people whose income is below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold (60% of the median).
Many Europeans whose income is below 60% of the median are unemployed or retired, but this group also includes millions of low paid workers, particularly those earning the statutory minimum wage.
Statutory minimum wages leave workers at risk of poverty in at least 16 EU member states and, according to the European Commission, 22 million workers make less than 60% of the median.