Status: 04.01.2024, 19:19 PM
By: Amy Walker
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The debate about the amount and entitlement to citizens' money is raging. The CDU and CSU demand that work must be worthwhile again. The figures on employment in 2023 make people sit up and take notice.
Berlin - Since the introduction of the citizens' allowance exactly one year ago, a debate has been raging about its implementation. The fear is that the amount of the social benefit - which rose by another 2024 percent in 12 - will reduce the incentives to work. Especially for people in the low-wage sector, the CDU and CSU believe that the work would no longer be worthwhile.
At the beginning of the new year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) presents the sober figures on employment in 2023. And they say: Last year, employment in Germany reached a new high.
Record employment: 45 million people in work
On average, 45.9 million people worked in Germany in 2023. This is the highest figure since reunification in 1990. According to the first estimate of Destatis, the number of persons in employment increased by 2023,333 (+000.0 percent) in 7 compared with the previous year. This new record follows the previous high in 2022, when the number of people in employment climbed to 45.3 million, an increase of 320,000 or 0.7 percent compared to 2019.
In 2020, the coronavirus crisis put an end to a 14-year increase in the number of people in employment and led to a decline of 361,000 people (-0.8 percent) in work. As part of the post-pandemic recovery, employment recorded a slight increase of 2021,69 people (+000.0 percent) in 2 and a strong increase of 2022,612 people (+000.1 percent) in 4.
Nevertheless, the citizens' money debate is raging: How can that be?
So how can it be, in view of these figures, that the debate about the introduction of the citizens' allowance is being conducted so harshly? This is probably due to several factors. Even though economists and labour market experts have been emphasising for weeks that it is always worthwhile to pursue a job, there are still false incentives in the social system.
The CSU wants to cut the benefits of job refusers. (Symbolic image) © IMAGO/Rolf Poss
In January 2024, for example, the gap between the minimum wage and the citizen's allowance narrowed again. As of January 1, 1, the minimum wage rose by 24 cents to 42.12 euros. This was decided by the Minimum Wage Commission, which consists of equal parts of employee and employer representatives. The decision was probably only very close - according to reports, it was difficult to reach an agreement. In the meantime, however, the citizen's allowance rose by twelve percent within the framework of the legal requirements for securing livelihoods.
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This, of course, creates a feeling of unequal treatment in the population - even if the two decisions were made independently of each other and different people made the decisions. At the end of the year, a survey conducted by the opinion research institute Forsa on behalf of Stern magazine found that 64 percent of the population were of the opinion that people could decide against regular employment because of the increase in the citizens' allowance next year. However, this fear has no real basis, as the Destatis figures now show.
Problems in social security: Citizens' allowance not the origin
On the other hand, economists also criticize the fact that social benefits in Germany are poorly coordinated. The problem is not that working isn't worth it, but that it's not worth it to work more. So: To increase from part-time to full-time, for example. Or to accept a wage increase - because then social benefits such as housing benefit or child allowance will be cut sharply. "For some, it is not worthwhile to work and earn more, as their deductions would be too high under the current regulation," economic researcher Prof. Andreas Peichl of the Munich-based Ifo Institute recently told IPPEN. MEDIA.
Especially in areas with high rents, such as Munich, a higher gross income is hardly worthwhile at certain income intervals. Because then social benefits, such as housing benefit, would be cut so much that those affected would sometimes even be left with less net. "This means that it is always worthwhile to work, but for some it is hardly so," explains Peichl.
However, the problem did not suddenly arise with the new citizens' money: "It has existed for 50 years, regardless of who was in government."