Pension: More than a third of Germans expect less than 1200 euros per month

Created: 01/12/2023 15:43

By: Patricia Huber

Numerous Germans are currently heading towards a very low pension.

This emerges from wage data from the Federal Employment Agency.

Munich/Berlin – The amount of the later pension depends on the salary during working life.

Anyone who earns little for years will only have a small statutory pension.

For more than a third of full-time employees in Germany, the salary is only sufficient for a net pension of less than 1,200 euros.

This emerges from a response from the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs to a request from the Left Group leader Dietmar Bartsch, which was available to the AFP news agency on Thursday.

In the eastern German federal states, more than half of all full-time employees are heading towards a pension of less than 1,200 euros.

Many Germans are heading towards a low pension

Bartsch wanted to know how many full-time employees would earn so little in 2021 that they would receive a net pension of less than 1,200 euros after 45 years.

The Ministry used the employment statistics of the Federal Employment Agency for the answer.

had first reported on the figures

.

The Ministry pointed out that the actual amount of the pension entitlements will only be known "when the insurance biography is fully completed".

The “amount of the social insurance contribution in a single year” cannot be used to draw conclusions about the “employment career” of the individual – nor about the actual income situation in old age, since people could, for example, also have other old-age income.

Pension: More than 10 percent receive less than 1000 euros net

According to the evaluated data from 2021, 36.8 percent of full-time employees in Germany earned so little that they were heading towards a pension of less than 1,200 euros.

Among the federal states, the value was lowest in Hamburg at 28.1 percent, closely followed by Baden-Württemberg.

The highest value was 58.2 percent in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

In the other East German states (excluding Berlin), the proportion was well over half at 55 to 58 percent.

Bartsch also asked how many full-time employees were heading for a net pension of less than 1,000 euros.

According to the data, this affects 2.25 million people across Germany, which corresponds to a share of 10.3 percent.

The documents show that for a pension of 1000 euros after 45 years of contributions, a gross monthly wage of 2011 euros is required, for a pension of 1200 euros it is 3034 euros.

Bartsch: "Need major pension reform"

"The relationship is not right," Bartsch commented.

Wage and pension levels are often too low, he told the

.

Overall, the numbers are alarming.

"We need a major pension reform in Germany," concluded Bartsch.

The statutory pension often no longer secures the standard of living.

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"We need a pension fund like in Austria, where the average pension is 800 euros higher than here," said the parliamentary group leader.

“This is possible because not only employees and employers pay in there, but all citizens with an income from work – including members of parliament, civil servants, the self-employed and managers.

What Austria can do, Germany must also be able to do.”