Since Saturday there has been a new lower wage limit in Germany: the minimum wage has risen to twelve euros. Who will benefit the most.
Millions of employees in Germany can look forward to a wage increase since Saturday. The minimum wage has now risen to twelve euros. In some sectors, a particularly large number benefit.
The lower wage limit rose from 10.45 euros to 12 euros per hour on October 1st. That is an increase of almost 15 percent. Since the beginning of the year, the increase has been around 22 percent.
6.64 million. At least that many employees currently earn less than twelve euros, according to a study by the Economic and Social Science Institute of the Hans Böckler Foundation, which is close to the trade union. Other studies had given slightly lower numbers. According to the Ministry of Labor benefit mathematically
Get it mathematically
at wages.
No, the coalition had already planned the increase before the Russian attack on Ukraine and the energy crisis. Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil emphasizes that the increase exceeds the rate of inflation. “Nevertheless, of course, inflation eats up a lot of purchasing power, especially for low earners,” says Heil, referring to the €200 billion defense umbrella that the federal government has announced.
Employer President Rainer Dulger criticized the step as “recurring state wage dictates”. “This is a serious breach of trust in politics towards the social partnership,” said Dulger. “Hundreds of wage groups that were jointly agreed by employers’ associations and trade unions are no longer valid.” The German trade union federation has long campaigned for the increase. DGB board member Stefan Körzell now rated the step as “a ray of hope in these difficult times”.
Usually a central one, because they sit on the Minimum Wage Commission. This committee normally proposes regular increases – as has been the case since 2015, when the minimum wage of 8.50 euros was introduced. The government asserts that it will be up to the Commission again in the future – “for the first time again until June 30, 2023 with effect from January 1, 2024”.
“It was necessary for us to bring the lower incomes closer to the middle ones,” says Heil. “Because the increase to twelve euros is roughly a lower wage limit of 60 percent of the average income.” This has also been defined at the European level as a threshold for a poverty-proof lower wage limit. That is why today’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, promised twelve euros during the federal election campaign.
More collective bargaining. “We will work to ensure that there is a collective bargaining package that is to be decided next year,” Heil told the German Press Agency on Friday. “It is right and good that we have now raised the minimum wage significantly, as important as it is to ensure that there are more decent wages above the minimum wage again.” The federal government should only award public contracts to companies with give tariff.
This was a fear repeatedly expressed by employers, especially when it was introduced in 2015. According to studies, however, there have been no major upheavals on the labor market. Now the chairwoman of the Federal Employment Agency, Andrea Nahles, told Bayerischer Rundfunk: “We believe that the increase in the German labor market is easy to cope with.”
