The EU will not force a statutory minimum wage on countries such as Denmark following an outcry by Nordic member states over a threat to their century-old systems of collective bargaining.

A European commission consultation document on the directive, states that the traditional methods of employer-employee negotiation in high-salary member states will be exempt.

“EU action would not seek the introduction of a statutory minimum wage in countries with high coverage of collective bargaining and where wage setting is exclusively organised through it,” it said.

Denmark’s employment minister, Peter Hummelgaard, has said he will scrutinise the “devil in the detail” of the policy. The commission has launched a six-week consultation.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European commission, pledged to bring in a common framework for setting a minimum wage as she sought to secure support among socialist MEPs for her leadership of the EU’s executive branch.

The commission is also under pressure to reverse the “brain drain” from east to west caused by huge discrepancies in salaries within the EU.

About one in six workers in the EU earns a low wage and the numbers are on the rise, from 16.7% to 17.2% between 2006 and 2014. In-work poverty increased between 2005 and 2018, from 8.1% to 9.6%.

Countries with a higher collective bargaining coverage tend to have a lower proportion of low paid workers.

In 2018, the highest wage floors were observed in countries such as Denmark and Italy where 80% of workers are covered by their collective bargaining systems. Even the lowest paid Danish workers generally receive around €15 (£13) an hour.

But between 2000 and 2015, coverage of EU workers has decreased from an estimated average of 68.5% to 59.5%, with particularly strong declines in central and Eastern Europe, the commission said.

The commission wants to increase the level of the salaries being paid to the lowest earners. Of the 28 member states, 22 already have statutory national minimum wages but the rates vary hugely and the setting of the salaries can be opaque.