Our "collective contracts" offer a lot more benefits than just salary, though. For example, they limit how often your employer can require you to be "on call" (if that is part of your role), how much overtime the employer can ask for, how much they need to pay for it, etc.

The contract really benefits everyone, regardless of salary level.

And you don't even need to be a union member. The contract is binding for every employer in Austria, but union membership is voluntary. (Unions offer additional benefits to members, eg. legal assistance)

The system really isn't that bad.

To be honest, I’m not such a stickler for rules that I’d care about how often I can be on call, but I’ve basically been on call 24/7 before, so it’s quite possible I’ve become inured to it, and getting extra money for it is always nice.

As far as overtime goes, in Japan you are basically pre-paid for 35 hours of overtime a month regardless of whether you actually work it, so I’ll probably never get any extra money for it unless things get really crazy.

So the overtime and "on call" is not regulated on the country level?

In Poland it is, we have limits of how much overtime one can have, how much money you get when working overtime (e.g. during the week it is +50% more per hour, during the weekend it is +100% more). One has to have at least I think 11 hours of free time from work ("on call" + usual office time hours) per 24hrs during the week and it is 36 hrs during the weekend.

Some things are regulated in the law (Angestelltengesetz), some parts are regulated in "collective contracts" (Kollektivvertrag), some parts are in a company wide contracts (Betriebsvereinbarung), and then there is your individual contract.

Can you explain or link to details on the on-call policy restrictions and compensation?

The contract can be found here (in German): https://www.wko.at/branchen/information-consulting/unternehm...

The on-call policy is discussed in paragraph 7.

Summary: At most 10 times on call per month, no more than 168 hours per month, no more than 30 days in 3 months, payment of 4,33€ per hour for being on call, as soon as you start doing something it counts as regular working time.

What percentage of Google employees aren't getting a living wage?

Probably a large percentage, but they're not programmers. I think you'll find far greater support from programmers for efforts (including unionization) that would improve the plight of non-programmers, particularly contingent workers, at top companies.

how probable, how large?

A union is a bureaucratic process for that problem A much simpler solution is to donate directly to those coworkers. Rather than paying union fees and getting the company to direct more of your salary to lower paid employees, you can just give them how much you want to.