Collective bargaining coverage — Employees with the right to bargain by country
The database on Institutional Characteristics of Trade Unions, Wage Setting, State Intervention and Social Pacts (ICTWSS) was developed by Prof. Jelle Visser at the University of Amsterdam. It was first released in May 2007. In its initial form, the ICTWSS database combined data from various sources and projects...
What the numbers show
Collective bargaining coverage — Employees with the right to bargain is currently reported for 29 countries. The highest value is 100 Percentage of employees in Belgium; the lowest is 8.2 Percentage of employees in Mexico.
The median across all reporting countries is 45.8 Percentage of employees, and the mean is 50.91 Percentage of employees.
The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 12.
Over the past decade 6 countries rose and 17 fell. The largest increase was in Colombia (up 1,862.5%), and the largest decrease in Greece (down 84.6%).
Collective bargaining coverage — Employees with the right to bargain: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Belgium | 100 Percentage of employees | 2024 | unchanged | rising |
| 1 | Italy | 100 Percentage of employees | 2024 | unchanged | flat |
| 3 | Austria | 98 Percentage of employees | 2024 | unchanged | flat |
| 3 | France | 98 Percentage of employees | 2024 | unchanged | rising |
| 5 | Iceland | 90 Percentage of employees | 2024 | unchanged | flat |
| 6 | Finland | 88.8 Percentage of employees | 2022 | down 3.4% | rising |
| 7 | Sweden | 88 Percentage of employees | 2024 | down 0.7% | rising |
| 8 | Portugal | 83.3 Percentage of employees | 2023 | down 6.5% | falling |
| 9 | Denmark | 81.6 Percentage of employees | 2023 | down 2.5% | flat |
| 10 | Norway | 72 Percentage of employees | 2022 | up 1.4% | flat |
| 11 | Australia | 59.7 Percentage of employees | 2023 | down 0.5% | falling |
| 12 | Luxembourg | 57.3 Percentage of employees | 2022 | down 1.9% | falling |
| 13 | Switzerland | 51.5 Percentage of employees | 2021 | up 3.0% | flat |
| 14 | Germany | 49 Percentage of employees | 2024 | down 15.2% | falling |
| 15 | Israel | 45.8 Percentage of employees | 2023 | up 15.4% | falling |
| 16 | Czechia | 43.2 Percentage of employees | 2024 | down 8.3% | falling |
| 17 | United Kingdom | 40.2 Percentage of employees | 2024 | down 6.3% | falling |
| 18 | Ireland | 34 Percentage of employees | 2017 | down 18.5% | falling |
| 19 | OECD | 33.62 Percentage of employees | 2024 | down 4.2% | falling |
| 20 | Canada | 30.2 Percentage of employees | 2024 | unchanged | falling |
| 21 | Hungary | 20.4 Percentage of employees | 2022 | down 20.9% | falling |
| 22 | Chile | 19.3 Percentage of employees | 2023 | up 17.0% | rising |
| 23 | New Zealand | 18.7 Percentage of employees | 2024 | down 8.3% | volatile |
| 24 | Colombia | 15.7 Percentage of employees | 2016 | up 1,862.5% | volatile |
| 25 | Japan | 15.2 Percentage of employees | 2023 | down 5.0% | falling |
| 26 | Greece | 13.1 Percentage of employees | 2017 | down 84.6% | falling |
| 27 | United States | 11.1 Percentage of employees | 2024 | down 9.8% | falling |
| 28 | Costa Rica | 10.4 Percentage of employees | 2024 | up 11.8% | rising |
| 29 | Mexico | 8.2 Percentage of employees | 2024 | down 18.8% | falling |
Regions and income groups
Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.
- Slovak Republic 27.6 Percentage of employees
- Korea 16.3 Percentage of employees
About this data
The database on Institutional Characteristics of Trade Unions, Wage Setting, State Intervention and Social Pacts (ICTWSS) was developed by Prof. Jelle Visser at the University of Amsterdam. It was first released in May 2007. In its initial form, the ICTWSS database combined data from various sources and projects with a main focus on trade union in EU and OECD countries, collective bargaining and employment relations in Europe, and social pacts. In 2021, the ICTWSS database was rebranded as the OECD/AIAS ICTWSS database to reflect the joint effort by the OECD and AIAS-HSI to ensure the continuation of the database following Prof. Visser’s retirement. The OECD/AIAS ICTWSS database is publicly available at: http://www.oecd.org/employment/ictwss-database.htm