10 million more workers can’t heat their homes

The number of people in the European Union who can’t afford to keep their home warm increased by 16 million during the cost-of-living crisis – and the majority of them were in work. 

In 2019, an estimated 7% of the European population could not afford to put the heating on, equivalent to 30.7 million people, including 13.4 million people in work.

But the latest figures show that the share of people living in energy poverty increase to 10.6% in 2023 - 47.5 million people, including 23.7 million people in employment. 

It means of the 16 million more people plunged into energy poverty since 2019, 10.3 million of them are in employment. Half of all those unable to afford heating are now in work, compared to 44% in 2019. However, many of their jobs are now under threat as a result of high energy costs faced by industries.

The shocking rise was revealed in an analysis of Eurostat data by the European Union Trade Institute and comes ahead of the launch of the European Commission’s Clean Industrial Deal, which includes an Action Plan for Affordable Energy.
 

 
Source: Analysis of Eurostat data (see notes) by the European Trade Union institute


The figures show the need to fully implement the European Minimum Wage directive, which will benefit more than 20 million people if it is properly implemented by member states.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is also calling on Commissioner Jørgensen to include the following measures in the Action Plan for Affordable Energy needed to prevent high energy costs putting pressure on companies, jobs as well as households.

• Price controls to protect households from volatile energy prices and prevent energy poverty;

• An enforceable ban on energy disconnections for those who can’t afford bills;

• Increased provisions and funding for public and municipal ownership and investment in energy infrastructure;

• Lower borrowing costs for renewable and low-carbon energy projects and grid infrastructure through public investment and public ownership;

• Ensuring that all public funds to energy adheres to social conditionalities to promote and protect collective bargaining, fair wages, safe working conditions, and workers’ rights;

• Actions to ensure affordable clean energy for industries, business, and household, with more democratic control and infrastructure plans;

ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch said:

“High energy costs are affecting industries, jobs and households. The shocking increase in the number of working people who cannot afford to heat their homes, as well as struggling to pay their rent and buy food, shows exactly why the EU was right to take action to increase pay and why the Directive needs to be fully transposed by member states as a matter of urgency.

“The minimum wage directive, if properly implemented, will not only ensure basic rates of pay meet the cost of living taking into account the cost of heating a home, but also that more people benefit from genuinely fair wages negotiated through collective bargaining.

“These measures to ensure people receive a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work are essential when we can see that the majority of people falling into energy poverty are now in work.

“We are past the time for talking, urgent EU level action is also needed to lower energy bills for industries, business, and households and to ensure the right to clean affordable energy, recognising energy as a public good.”

ETUC Confederal Secretary Ludovic Voet said:

“At a time when 363,500 people already die annually from the cold in Europe, the huge rise in the number who can’t afford to heat their homes calls for urgent action.

“The Action Plan for Affordable Energy must include measures which match the scale of the escalating crisis faced by working people in Europe, by reopening the Electricity Market Design and by working on price controls and an enforceable ban on disconnections.

“We also need to tackle the fundamental failure in the market by giving the public sector a greater role in planning an affordable, clean and reliable energy supply and prevent the profit-driven decisions that are driving millions of people into poverty.

"This would not only mean cheaper household energy bills for workers and their families, but also protect people's jobs by relieving the pressure put on companies by high energy prices."

Notes

ETUC Resolution Energy Union Regulation - Taking Decisive Action to Protect Industry, Households, and Create Quality Jobs

Number of individuals across EU27 average who cannot afford to keep their home warm, based on eurostat ilc_mdes01 (the share of people that cannot keep their dwelling adequately warm, adjusted to the population by the full population in the country on the 1st of January (Eurostat tps00001).

The number of workers who can’t afford to keep their home warm is based on Microdata  from the EU-SILC for 2019 and 2023 – the computer share of all respondents aged 16-69 who were employed [self-reported] and could not always keep their dwelling warm, as well as the share out of all respondents who could not keep their dwelling warm. Using the base weights this was aggregated to two shares for each EU27 member state in 2019 and 2022, and then aggregated using the population size obtained from Eurostat demo_pjangroup