MINIMUM WAGE AND TAX COMPETITION BETWEEN THE E.U. MEMBER COUNTRIES AS AN ENGINE OF ECONOMIC BALANCE

Today we are living in a flat world, a place where all the economies are competing with each other from different perspectives. This paper will not be only about the fiscal competition, but also about the minimum wage which can provide some competitive advantages to the companies enlisted in the European Union countries. The issue is not about the developed countries, economically speaking, but about those who are in no such conditions. In the first part of the paper there will be some fiscal competition details presented: direct and indirect taxes, income tax rates, social security contributions and many other aspects which concern the fiscal policy of the member countries of the European Union. After that, will be tested the nature, the strength and the intensity of the correlation between those fiscal aspects and the minimum wages that are applied in these countries. The paper will try to prove if these elements of those two categories are, together, able to provide some competitive advantages to the economies which are less economically developed. In this respect, the paper will use data from European statistics – EUROSTAT, and, also, data from the fiscal and the social authorities in the member countries of the E.U. Based on these facts, the paper will conclude whether a link could be established between minimum wage and fiscal elements, on one hand, and some economic advantages for some of the member countries, on the other hand. All these, with a result in an increase in the economic balance, in order to align the less developed countries with the advanced ones in this perspective.