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Gastro operation in Bavaria (archive picture): The higher wages should mean about 700 million euros in additional income from social security
Photo: Tom Weller / picture alliance / dpa
As of October 1 of this year, the minimum wage is to be increased in one go from the current EUR 9.82 to EUR 12 gross per hour. The minimum wage law is to be changed for this purpose. This emerges from the corresponding draft that Labor Minister Heil submitted to the vote between the departments of the federal government on Friday and that is available to SPIEGEL. The decision to raise the lower wage limit in July to EUR 10.45 will nevertheless be implemented.
According to the draft, "an estimated 6.2 million employees" who have previously worked below this wage limit will benefit from the increase.
The increase will result in “higher wage costs for the employers concerned, estimated at around 1.63 billion euros in 2022”.
At the same time, the higher wages led to around 700 million euros in additional income for social security.
»Elementary requirements of justice«
In the draft, step is justified, among other things, by the fact that the previous minimum wage often does not meet the "elementary justice requirements expressed in the Basic Law", "that when working full-time, a single worker can earn a living on a regular basis without being dependent on supplementary social benefits «.
Their number is put at around 111,000 in the draft.
Even with full-time employment, it is not enough to achieve a “poverty-avoiding pension”.
In addition, the German minimum wage is in the bottom ranks compared to the national average wages in a European comparison.
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Actually, since its introduction in January 2015, the statutory minimum wage has been reviewed and adjusted every two years by the independent Minimum Wage Commission, which is made up of representatives from trade unions and employers.
Now the lower wage limit is to be raised once by politicians and the minimum wage law is to be changed accordingly.
At the same time, Heil wants to stipulate in the law that the Minimum Wage Commission will be responsible again from 2023 and should decide on further adjustments to the minimum wage.
Weeks ago, employer representatives sharply criticized the planned unscheduled increase in the minimum wage as a gross violation of collective bargaining autonomy.
The president of the employers' association BDA, Rainer Dulger, criticized the planned law as a breach of the promise "that the minimum wage commission is the guardian of the minimum wage and not politics".
Legal steps are also not excluded.