Day against poverty: Caritas Europa, “the only way out is work for everyone and decent wages”

Since 2008, when the crisis began, considerable progress has been achieved in terms of reducing unemployment in Europe, but “at a dear price”: “austerity policies put wages under pressure, and today the number of ‘working poor’ is higher than before the crisis. Employment is a way out of poverty, but only if there are jobs for everybody and at a decent wage”. Caritas Europa stressed this on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, calling on European countries to “take more seriously their commitment to realise the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1: End poverty”. In particular, Caritas Europa asks that “appropriate social protection systems and measures that cover everybody, especially the most vulnerable” be put in place. “Our leaders – said Jorge Nuño Mayer, Secretary General of Caritas Europa – must ensure that no one is left under the poverty line. This can be done if they put in place fair and sustainable social models that keep family policies at the centre, provide for inclusive labour markets and ensure access to adequate social protection systems for all”.