Why is income distribution in France and Italy very different from that of the OECD as a whole?

While income distribution has become highly skewed against workers across the OECD as a whole over the last 20 years, this has not happened in France and Italy, where, on the contrary, real wages have risen slightly faster than labour productivity. How can we explain this French and Italian exception to this norm of modern capitalism? We examine: The unionisation rate; The minimum wage level; Productivity growth; The trend in capital intensity; The tax burden on households. The plausible explanations for the French and Italian anomaly with regard to income distribution seem to be: In Italy, strong unionisation, lack of productivity gains, low capital intensity, high tax burden on households; In France, a high level of the minimum wage, low productivity gains and capital intensity, high tax burden on households.