In a report entitled “Minimum wage broken down by employee nationality,” the Chamber of Employees (CSL) analyses the profiles of workers--some 66,000 of them--earning the minimum wage.

In the study, workers are split into two categories, “skilled” and “unskilled.”

As you can see in the chart above, “unskilled” non-Luxembourgish residents are overrepresented, accounting for 38.5% of all “unskilled” workers making the minimum wage in the grand duchy (if you remove the skills factor, they make up just 28.5% of the overall number). Conversely, both types of non-resident are overrepresented: of the “unskilled” people working in Luxembourg and making the minimum wage, 1.9% are Luxembourgers living outside the border (which rises to 2.8% without the skills factor) and 38.4% are non-Luxembourgish cross-border commuters (which rises to 47.6% without the skills factor). As for the remaining group--Luxembourgish residents--they make up about a fifth of minimum wage workers (overall) as well as a fifth of “unskilled” minimum wage workers.

This same group, however, accounts for only 14.3% of “skilled” workers on minimum wage. The other category of residents (non-Luxembourgish residents) is also underrepresented. Meanwhile, of all the “skilled” workers on minimum wage in the grand duchy, nearly 60% are non-Luxembourgers who cross the border to work, making this group heavily overrepresented (they make up just 47.6% of minimum wage workers overall).

By specific nationality

Employees who make the minimum wage are highly diverse in terms of nationality. For “skilled” workers the proportions are spread similarly among those from Luxembourg, its neighbours and Portugal. When looking at “unskilled” workers, however, there is a particularly high number from Portugal. About a fifth of minimum wage workers (of any skills category) are Portuguese.

Only for Luxembourgish and Portuguese workers, furthermore--not counting the “other” category--is the percentage of “unskilled” higher than that of “skilled.”

By gender

In terms of gender, the most equality is found among Luxembourgers, where nearly as many women as men make the minimum wage. Elsewhere, women are more likely to make less: proportionally, 3% more German women than German men make the minimum wage; for Belgians, that margin is 7%; for the French, 6%; and for the Portuguese, 8%. These disparities sharpen when you drill down to the “unskilled” worker category.

This article in Paperjam. It has been translated and edited for Delano.