COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Social Scoreboard Accompanying the document COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Establishing a European Pillar of Social Rights
Date: 2017-04-26
Institutions: Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission
Subjects: EU employment policy, European social policy, economic policy, euro area, labour market, social development, social integration, social rights, social security, working conditions

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   EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 26.4.2017  SWD(2017) 200 final   COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Social Scoreboard Accompanying the document COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS  Establishing a European Pillar of Social Rights {COM(2017) 250 final} {SWD(2017) 201 final} {SWD(2017) 206 final}  
 
 
Delivering on a more social and fair Europe is a key priority for the European Commission. 
The European Pillar of Social Rights has been put forward to serve as a compass for a process 
leading to renewed socio-economic convergence and to drive reforms at national level. In this 
framework,  the  Pillar  is  supported  by  a  scoreboard  of  key  indicators  to  screen  employment 
and social performances of participating Member States. This monitoring tool would allow as 
well benchmarking successful outcomes to ensure overall improvement.  

The scoreboard serves as a reference framework to monitor ‘societal progress’, in a tangible, 
holistic and objective way, which is easily accessible and understandable to citizens. It detects 
in  a  timely  way  the  most  significant  employment  and  social  challenges  facing  the  Member 
States, the EU and the euro area, as well as progress achieved over time. For the purposes of 
this scoreboard, we define ‘societal progress’ as the capacity to enhance and sustain wellbeing 
and opportunities, creating conditions for people to reach their full potential and to meet their 
basic needs. 

This definition alludes to three broad dimensions of societal progress: (1) Equal opportunities 
and access to the labour market, (2) Dynamic labour markets and fair working conditions, and 
(3) Public support / social protection and inclusion.  

1)  "Equal  opportunities  and  access  to  the  labour  market"  covers  aspects  of  fairness 
related  to  education,  skills  and  lifelong  learning,  gender,  inequality  and  social 
mobility, living conditions and youth; 

2)  "Dynamic  labour  markets  and  fair  working  conditions"  responds  to  the  question 
whether  markets  work  efficiently  and  freely  to  help  relocation  and  job  search  in  a 
competitive  economy.  Indicators  under  this  heading  cover  the  functioning  of  labour 
markets, support for employment and transitions, and, on the other hand, the fairness 
dimension with conditions of work and wages; 

3)  "Public  support  /  social  protection  and  inclusion"  covers  fair  outcomes  through 
public  action  and/or  social  protection.  This  set  of  indicators  refers  mainly  to  the 
provision of services and social safety nets.  

The scoreboard benchmarks EU Member States performances vis-à-vis the EU and the euro 
area averages. Furthermore, it will provide the opportunity, at least for some of its elements, 
to  compare  the  EU’s  performance  with  other  international  actors.  Such  a  benchmarking 
exercise can serve as an empirical basis for renewed processes of  mutual learning from best 
practices.  The  scoreboard  will  also  allow  the  visualisation  of  longer-term  trends.  Where 
possible  and  relevant,  indicators  are  disaggregated  by  age,  gender  and/or  educational 
attainment. 

12  areas  have  been  selected  on  which  societal  progress  could  be  measured,  associated 
with one of the three chapters above. The indicators proposed to cover these areas are set out 
in  the  Annex,  and  are  based  on  existing  quantitative  data,  collected  by  Eurostat  (derived 
primarily from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions –EU-SILC–, the Structure 
of Earnings Survey every four years combined with annual national estimates and the Labour 
Force Survey –LFS–) and the OECD.  

The  European  Semester,  the  annual  cycle  of  economic  policy  coordination,  is  an  important 
vehicle  to  monitor  closely  developments  at  EU  and  Member  State  level,  covering  the  wide 
span of areas addressed by the European Pillar of Social Rights. In this light, the scoreboard 

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will  be  discussed  with  the  relevant  Council  committees,  with  a  view  to  its  use  in  the 
framework of the European Semester, and its incorporation in the annual Joint Employment 
Report published each autumn alongside the Annual Growth Survey. In this context, the first 
indicators for each area (in bold) should be used as headline indicators for the scoreboard to 
be  included  in  the  Joint  Employment  Report,  while  the  other  indicators  are  secondary 
indicators,  on  which  the  Joint  Employment  Report  would  report  in  the  body  of  its  text,  as 
relevant.  Following  the  increased  importance  of  the  employment  and  social  aspects  in  the 
European Semester in recent years, the scoreboard will facilitate a stronger consideration of 
employment  and  societal  challenges  within  the  European  Semester,  and  the  euro  area  and 
country-specific recommendations that result from it, which may reflect and promote relevant, 
targeted reforms according to national specificities. It could also be a reference point for the 
work done on the social dimension of the euro area.  

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Annex – Social Scoreboard: headline and secondary indicators 

Equal opportunities and access to the labour market  

Education, skills and 
lifelong learning 

1.  Early leavers from education and training 
(Share of early leavers aged 18-24 from education and training, by gender) 
Eurostat 

Adult participation in learning 
(Lifelong learning - % of age 25-64 participating in education and training, by gender) 
Eurostat 

Underachievement  in  education  (PISA  results  for  low  achievement  in  mathematics  -  15 
year-olds)  
OECD  

Tertiary educational attainment, age group 30-34 
(Tertiary  educational  attainment  -  %  of  age  30-34  year  olds  having  completed  tertiary 
education, by gender)   
Eurostat 

Gender equality in the 
labour market 

2.  Gender employment gap  
(Gender gap in employment rate) 
Eurostat 

Gender gap in part-time employment  
(Gender gap in part-time employment as share of total employment) 
Eurostat 

Gender pay gap in unadjusted form 
(Unadjusted gender pay gap per hour in %)    
Eurostat 

Inequality and upward 
mobility 

3.  Income inequality  
(Measured as quintile share ratio - S80/S20)   
Eurostat 

Variation  in  performance  explained  by  students'  socio-economic  status  (impact  of  socio-
economic and cultural status on PISA scores) 
OECD  

Living conditions and 
poverty 

4.  At-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion rate (AROPE)  
(% of total population at risk of poverty or social exclusion, by gender)   
Eurostat 

At-risk-of-poverty-rate (AROP)  
(% of total population at risk of poverty, by gender)   
Eurostat 

Severe material deprivation rate (SMD)  
(% of total population severaly materially deprived, by gender)     
Eurostat 

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Persons living in a household with a very low work intensity  
(% of population aged 60 and below living in households with very low work intensity, by  
gender)  
Eurostat 

Severe housing deprivation rate 
(% of total population living in overcrowded dwellings and exhibiting housing deprivation, 
by tenure status) 
Eurostat 

Youth 

5.  Young people neither in employment nor in education and training, age group 15-

Labour force structure 

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(NEET rate, by gender)  
Eurostat 

Dynamic labour markets and fair working conditions 

6.  Employment rate   
(20-64, by gender, age, and educational attainment)  
Eurostat 

7.  Unemployment rate  
(15-74, by gender, age and educational attainment) 
Eurostat 

Activity rate  
(15-64, by gender and age) 
Eurostat 

Youth unemployment rate  
(15-24, by gender) 
Eurostat 

Share of long-term unemployment  
(in total active population, by gender)  
Eurostat 

Labour market dynamics  8.  Activation measures –labour market policies participants per 100 persons wanting 

to work (total) 

Eurostat 

Employment in current job by duration 
(Percentage of the employed persons in their current job by duration (one year or less, 1 to 
2 years, 2 to 5 years, more than 5 years)) 
Eurostat 

Transition rates from temporary to permanent contracts (3-year average)  
(% of population aged 18 and over whose working status changed from temporary contract 
in previous year to permanent contract in current one, by gender)) 
Eurostat 

Income, including 
employment-related  

9.  Adjusted  gross  disposable  income  of  households  in  real  terms  (PPS  per  capita: 

Index 2008=100) 

Eurostat 

10.  Compensation of employees per hour worked 
Own calculations based on Eurostat  

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In work at-risk-of-poverty rate  
(% of working population aged 18 and over who is at risk f poverty, by gender)  
Eurostat 

Public support / Social protection and inclusion 

Impact of public policies 
on reducing poverty  

11.  Impact of social transfers (other than pensions) on poverty reduction 
(Difference,  among  total population,  between  the  share of  people  at  risk  of  poverty  rate 
before and after social transfers, by gender)  
Eurostat 

General government expenditure by function 
(General government expenditure as % of GDP, by function (social protection, health and 
education)) 
Eurostat 

Aggregate replacement ratio for pensions  
(Ratio of the median individual gross pensions of 65-74 age category relative to the median 
individual gross earning of 50-59 age category) 
Eurostat  

Early childhood care  

12.  Children aged less than 3 years in formal childcare  
(Children in formal childcare (proportion of children in same age group - age 0 – 3))  
Eurostat 

Healthcare 

13.  Self-reported unmet need for medical care (EU SILC)  
(% of total population who reported unmet need for medical care, by gender)  
Eurostat 

Healthy life years (at the age of 65) 
Eurostat 

Out-of-pocket expenditure on health care   
Eurostat  

Digital access  

14.  Individuals’ level of digital skills 
(Share of population with basic overall digital skills or above basic overall digital skills by 
gender)  
Eurostat 

Connectivity dimension of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI): Fixed broadband 
take up (33%), mobile Broadband take up (22%), speed (33%), and affordability (11%) 
Digital Scoreboard  

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