Tuesday, November 30th, 2021
DGB complains of defiant behavior
Employers apply the brakes on the minimum wage
According to the SPD, the increased minimum wage of 12 noon should be paid as early as mid-2022. With the decision, the traffic light parties override the otherwise responsible minimum wage commission. The employers are upset and cancel a meeting. The DGB sees this as a defiant reaction.
The increase in the minimum wage to twelve euros planned by the traffic light parties is causing trouble in the independent minimum wage commission. As the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” report, a meeting of the commission scheduled for Wednesday was canceled at short notice at the urging of the employer representatives. The German Trade Union Federation (DGB) accused the employers of reacting defiantly.
“Of course it was to be expected that the plan of the traffic light coalition would cause anger among employers,” said DGB board member Stefan Körzell the newspapers. But this is about at least 8.6 million people who would have to be funded by the state with top-up payments or later the basic pension – “the employers also have to provide earnings that make this superfluous”.
The DGB board member warned the employer representatives in the minimum wage commission to accept the result of the federal election and to take their responsibility seriously. “You have to live with the alliance that has just received a majority and you cannot defiantly stand by it.” According to the report, it is not yet clear when exactly the canceled meeting will be rescheduled. Accordingly, an unspecified date was agreed at the end of January or the beginning of February.
“One-time adjustment”: traffic light ignores commission
The minimum wage commission was set up by the government to determine the statutory minimum wage. The traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP are ignoring the committee with their decision to raise the minimum wage from the current EUR 9.60 in one step to EUR 12 per hour. It is a “one-time adjustment”, says the coalition agreement. After that, the Commission should be responsible again. The minimum wage of 12 euros per hour was a central election campaign promise of the SPD.
The incumbent and possibly future Labor Minister Hubertus Heil had promised at the weekend to implement the increase in the minimum wage by the middle of next year: “We will tackle the increase in the minimum wage to twelve euros very quickly. The increase should apply by next summer at the latest. Then earn around ten million more people, “said the SPD politician.