Berlin (dts) - The German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB) has called on the government coalition to increase the minimum wage in accordance with an EU directive that will come into force in November. “This directive must be implemented into national law by next November and sets 60 percent of the median income as a guideline for a poverty-level wage,” said DGB board member Stefan Körzell to the “Editorial Network Germany” (Saturday editions). In Germany, the minimum wage must be at least 14 euros.
According to the Minimum Wage Directive, EU Member States must use indicators and relevant reference values to assess the adequacy of the statutory minimum wage. The directive lists several options, including the possibility of setting the gross minimum wage at 60 percent of the average gross wage.
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil recently asked the minimum wage commission, of which Körzell is a member, to propose a significant increase in the applicable minimum wage limit. Körzell said that the unions in the Commission had recently pushed for new negotiations in order to close the gap between the current 12,41 euros and the “actually appropriate 14 euros”. Otherwise, an increase would not be discussed again until mid-2025, which would then only apply from January 1, 2026 at the earliest. “That would mean that minimum wage earners would be decoupled from general wage developments for the next 1,5 years,” said the DGB board.
The Union faction and the FDP, however, expressed criticism of Klingbeil's initiative. “Lars Klingbeil can of course be annoyed that the minimum wage commission is doing its job,” said deputy parliamentary group leader of the FDP, Lukas Köhler, to the RND. “The SPD chairman should not give the impression that he wants to undermine collective bargaining autonomy by interfering in independent wage determination.” The work of the minimum wage commission must remain free of political influence in the future.
Union parliamentary group vice-president Hermann Gröhe told the RND that an increase in the minimum wage was “a matter for the unions and employers within the framework of the Minimum Wage Commission”. With Klingbeil's initiative, what the CDU/CSU had always warned about is now happening, said Gröhe. “The SPD is politicizing wage determination and thereby disempowering the collective bargaining partners.”
Last year, the employer representatives, together with the chairwoman of the commission, recommended an increase in the minimum wage by just 41 cents for the first time, against the votes of the employee representatives. The latter had sought an increase to 14 euros. The point of contention in the negotiations was how to deal with the previous increase in the minimum wage by the traffic light coalition to 12 euros as well as inflation, which had risen more significantly than the collective agreements could keep up.
