As of: March 13, 2024, 6:36 a.m
By: Florian Neuroth
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Due to the increase in citizens' allowance, many civil servants are now also receiving more money.
This costs the federal states millions of euros - even if salaries do not increase everywhere.
Berlin - There are few things that are debated as fiercely in Germany as citizens' money and the amount of state support.
Because behind this there is always the question of whether work is still worthwhile or whether recipients of citizens' benefit could possibly be better off financially than some employees in the low-wage sector.
With the increase in citizens' allowance at the beginning of the year, the discussion gained momentum.
Entrepreneurs warn that because of the small gap in wages compared to citizens' benefit, the personnel shortage in low-wage industries could become more severe and threaten their existence.
The public sector is now also required.
In order to maintain the gap between citizen's benefit and lower salary groups, the wages of many civil servants in Germany are currently being increased.
The background is a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court from 2020: At that time, the court decided that the state only fulfills its obligation to provide support if there is a minimum gap of 15 percent between basic security and civil servants' salaries.
Low incomes should exceed citizens' benefits so that work is worthwhile.
Therefore, only lower income groups are affected by the increase - and only in certain federal states.
Citizens' allowance is increasing and with it the wages of many civil servants in Germany.
According to the law, there must be a gap of 15 percent between basic security and civil servants' salaries.
© Imago Images
Increase in citizen's allowance leads to additional costs running into millions for countries because civil servants' wages rise
What pleases many officials now means significant additional expenditure for some countries.
The Bild newspaper reports on this.
They asked the countries and found major differences.
While civil servant salaries in Saxony-Anhalt and Bavaria are already high enough according to the inquiry and do not need to be adjusted, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania they expect around 20 million euros more for the around 17,000 civil servants per year.
Many received more money retroactively from 2023.
The state had already decided this a few months ago - but at the time there was still a lot of criticism from the unions.
In Schleswig-Holstein, according to Bild, the Ministry of Finance is currently expecting additional costs of 23.5 million euros for the years 2023 and 2024. Other states such as Lower Saxony and Hamburg have already passed new salary laws - in Hamburg this will result in additional costs of 2023 of 62 million euros.
According to Bild inquiries, other countries are still being examined, such as Baden-Württemberg and Saarland.
Bremen has not yet adjusted salaries either, but the government is assuming additional costs “in the double-digit million range”.
Trouble about citizens' money and possible zero round in the traffic lights
It seems clear: With the multi-million dollar impact of the citizen's benefit increase on civil servants, the debate about support from the state is further intensified.
Focus Online, for example, interprets the interaction between citizens' money and civil servants' salaries to question the amount of citizens' money.
It is lavish by European standards.
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Many politicians are also critical of citizens' money in its current form.
CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann recently spoke out against it.
While he is planning a fundamental reform of citizens' money, the FDP is calling for a zero round if citizens' money increases more than inflation in 2024.
The FDP had previously wanted to have the citizen's benefit increase examined and had therefore faced headwinds from its coalition partners in the federal government.
Both the SPD and the Greens rejected this.
The traffic light dispute was not over, even with an agreement on tougher sanctions for those who refused to work.
The citizens' benefit rates would not be "rolled by dice," said Labor Minister Hubertur Heil (SPD) in response to the zero-round demand from Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) also positioned himself against the FDP demand.
Media reports: Are civil servants becoming “increasingly unaffordable”?
The Focus Online report also mentions another possible interpretation of the higher civil servant salaries.
According to this, civil servants who are already doing well are becoming “increasingly unaffordable”.
In particular, the pension, which also includes excellent medical coverage, is princely compared to other employees.
The comparatively high pensions also led to politicians and economists repeatedly calling for fewer civil servants to be hired.
The magazine refers here to the Freiburg pension expert Bernd Raffelhüschen.
He recently made people sit up and take notice by saying that he wanted to limit civil servant status to sovereign tasks in the future.
By this he meant the judiciary, police and financial administration in the narrower sense.
“It’s hard to see why university professors or teachers have to be civil servants,” Raffelhüschen told
IPPEN.MEDIA’s Münchner Merkur
.
“That should never have happened.”
(Florian Neuroth)