Wages in the lower income groups are shrinking sharply

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Harvest workers

Photo: A2931 Bernd Weißbrod / dpa

The corona crisis has put pressure on gross wages, especially in the lower income groups.

The nominal wages in the second quarter of the year were 4.0 percent lower than a year earlier, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office.

Since consumer prices rose by 0.8 percent at the same time, the real decline in wages was even 4.7 percent.

There has never been such a minus since the statistics began in 2007.

However, the calculations do not include the short-time working allowance, which for many employees at least partially offset the loss of income.

In the lower wage groups for unskilled workers, the number of hours paid fell by an above-average 9.8 percent over the year, while the wages paid by the employer fell by 7.4 percent.

For people in management positions, working hours only decreased by an average of 3.0 percent and salaries only decreased by an average of 2.0 percent.

For full-time employees, the weekly paid working hours fell by 6.2 percent to 36.8 hours.

Here, too, the cut exceeded the value from the financial crisis of 2008/2009, when weekly working hours had decreased by 2.1 percent.

The statisticians also found evidence of a persistent pay gap between West and East.

From 2007 to 2019, nominal wages in the eastern German states rose by 41 percent, faster than in the west, where they only rose by 33 percent.

With a gross average income of EUR 41,534, full-time employees in the East are still almost a quarter behind their colleagues in the West, who averaged EUR 52,803.

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ssu / dpa