More than 12,000 cross-border workers live in Luxembourg, but only 1,500 leave the country each day to work in one of the neighbouring countries. How exactly does this work? The figure is not a mistake, nor do the rest of these cross-border workers work from home. The answer behind this seemingly impossible equation lies in the specificity of the European and international institutions.
In its latest examination on cross-border workers of August 2019, the statistics service Statec highlights that there is a distinctive feature inherent in the analysis of the originating countries of cross-border workers. As it happens, international institutions are considered extraterritorial.
Consequently, any employees of the European Parliament or the European Central Bank (ECB) are automatically considered cross-border workers. Nevertheless, a small portion of the Luxembourgish cross-border workers do indeed leave the country for their employment. In 2018, Luxembourg had 1,501 cross-border workers who left the country to work in Germany (390), Belgium (550) or France (561).
That number does remain low number compared to the 11,282 residents working for international institutions who are, in fact, also cross-border workers. European institutions attract the most workers, namely 10,566 in total, compared to 716 working for non-European institutions.
Statec found that these employees are also paid more than Luxembourgish cross-border workers commuting to neighbouring countries. This is due to their higher qualifications and the differences between social security contributions paid by the employer. When leaving the country to work, a Luxembourgish resident makes, on average, €46,953 a year, compared to €111,248 made by people working for European institutions and, finally, €127,451 made by those working for non-European institutions.
