Employment and social affairs

What the EU does

The EU’s employment and social affairs policies aim to create quality jobs across the Union, support workers in finding employment both within their home country and in other Member States, and promote skills development and entrepreneurship. These policies also focus on modernising and coordinating social security systems, improving working conditions through common minimum standards, fostering social inclusion, and addressing poverty and homelessness. Additionally, they work to protect the rights of people with disabilities, ensuring equal opportunities for all.

The EU provides and coordinates funding to help Member States to invest in areas like childcare, healthcare, training, accessible infrastructure and help with finding a job.

Key figures about the European Pillar of Social Rights

The European Pillar of Social Rights sets out 20 key principles and rights to support fair and well-functioning labour markets and welfare systems. The Action Plan of the European Pillar of Social Rights sets social targets for the EU to reach by 2030.

Employment

At least 78% of people in the EU aged 20 to 64 should be in employment

Training

At least 60% of all adults in the EU should participate in training every year

Reducing poverty

The number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU should be reduced by at least 15 million

Areas of action

Union of Skills

A plan to improve high quality education, training, and lifelong learning

Adequate minimum wages directive

Rules that help ensure that workers earn adequate minimum wages

Platform work directive

Improving the working conditions of people working through digital platforms

Youth Guarantee

Helping young people transition smoothly from education to work and preventing long-term unemployment among youth

European Child Guarantee

Ensuring that every child at risk of poverty or social exclusion has access to basic rights, like healthcare and education.

Pay transparency directive

Strengthening the principle of equal pay for equal work between men and women through transparency

European Health Insurance Card

Access to necessary public healthcare during a temporary stay in the EU, EEA, Switzerland, or the UK, under the same conditions as local residents

European Social Fund Plus (ESF+)

The EU’s main instrument for investing in people, to support employment, skills development and social inclusion. It provides €95.8 billion from the EU budget to Member States for the period 2021-2027.

European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers (EGF)

Special funding to support workers or the self-employed that have lost their jobs due to restructuring

Key achievements

The EU has put in place rules to improve the adequacy of minimum wages and promote collective bargaining. Adequate wages ensure a decent living for all and improve social fairness.
We set out rules to improve the working conditions of platform workers. Out of 28 million people working through digital platforms, up to 4.1 million that are wrongly classified as self-employed could become employees. These workers will benefit from labour and social rights, including health insurance, paid leave, unemployment support and access to social protection.
In the EU, women earn 13% less than men for the same job. We have set out rules on pay transparency, to make the basic principle that equal work deserves equal pay a reality. Companies with more than 100 employees will have to publish information on the pay gap between female and male workers.
The Youth Guarantee ensures that young people are offered a job, continued education, a traineeship, or an apprenticeship, within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving education. Since 2013, the European Youth Guarantee has helped more than 50 million young people.
Since 2022, more than 4 million Ukrainians have benefited from temporary protection, allowing them to rebuild their lives and work in the EU.
Running since 2020, the Pact for Skills encourages public and private organisations to join forces for upskilling and reskilling workers. Until 2024, it had brought together more than 2,500 members, which together have trained more than 3.5 million people.
From 2007 to 2024 alone, the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers has intervened in 182 cases, allocating €700 million to provide help to more than 170,000 people in 20 Member States.

In focus

To boost high quality education and skills development, plug labour gaps and increase the EU’s competitiveness, the Commission presented the union of skills strategy in March 2025.

It sets out a plan to: