“The objective of this study is to analyse the relationship between European Welfare State models and inequality. This work takes the work of SAPIR (2006) as its starting point. SAPIR considers the existence of four European welfare state models in the European Union: 1) the Nordic model (Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands) featuring the highest levels of social protection, high tax burden, active labour policies and highly compressed wages; 2) the Continental model (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg) with a high level of social contributory protection (pensions and non-employment benefits) and a rigid labour market; 3) the Mediterranean model (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) that concentrates its social spending on pensions and it also has a rigid labour market; and finally 4) the Anglo-Saxon model (United Kingdom and Ireland) with low levels of social protection (mainly healthcare), and extremely flexible labour market, weak labour unions and high wage dispersion. In this work, we have analysed two additional welfare state models: a) Central and Eastern European model and b) Baltic model”., revsegsoc, no. 13, pp. 297–312, Nov. 2017, Accessed: Nov. 06, 2026. Available: https://revista.laborum.es/index.php/revsegsoc/article/view/262