Enlarge image
Senior women in Berlin
Photo: BARBARA SAX / AFP
The around 21 million pensioners in Germany must expect that the increase in their salaries next year will be less than expected.
»The forecast was 5.2 percent.
Now I expect pensions in Germany to rise by 4.4 percent from July 2022, "said Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) in charge of" Bild am Sonntag ".
That is "still very neat".
The reason for the capped forecast is the so-called catch-up factor that the traffic light coalition wants to reintroduce. It was introduced by the likely new Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) as Federal Labor Minister in the financial crisis of 2008 - to compensate for the pension guarantee. The catch-up factor ensures that when wages fall in a crisis, pensions do not have to be cut as well. If wages rise again, he should mathematically compensate for the pension cut that has not been implemented. However, the grand coalition suspended this catching-up factor in 2018.
With the increase initially envisaged (5.2 percent in the west, 5.9 percent in the east), pensions in western Germany would have been increased more than they have been for almost 40 years.
This year, the corona pandemic had significantly increased the number of retirees.
In the west there was a zero round, in east Germany an increase of 0.72 percent.
The reason was the cyclical slump in premium income.
With a government led by Social Democrats, however, there would be no pension cuts, Heil promised.
»The pension development must not be decoupled from the wage development.
That is why we ensure a stable pension level over the long term. "
He also promised to implement the increase in the minimum wage by the middle of next year: “We will tackle the increase in the minimum wage to twelve euros very quickly.
The increase should apply by next summer at the latest.
Then around ten million people will earn more. "
sbo / dpa
