Tuesday 13 July 2021
Tremendous wage differences
Where apprentices earn the most
Many school leavers are starting their first year of training this summer. Even if the shortage of skilled workers has led to improved conditions in many industries, the differences in pay are still great. There is also a strong divide between east and west.
The lack of nursing staff has given trainees in this area the top position in terms of collectively agreed training allowances in Germany. However, they have to be paid according to a collective agreement for the public service, as reported by the collective bargaining archive of the Institute for Economic and Social Sciences (WSI) of the union-related Hans Böckler Foundation.
Nursing staff in the first year of training earn 1161 or 1163 euros per month, depending on whether they are subject to the collective agreement for the federal government and municipalities or for the states. In private care facilities without a collective agreement, however, the training remuneration can also be significantly lower, emphasized the WSI. However, care loses its top position in terms of pay as the training period increases. In the third year of apprenticeship, trainees in the West German construction trade earn the best with 1,495 euros per month, in nursing care 1328 and 1,333 euros are paid.
The differences in the collectively agreed pay of trainees are still considerable. The lowest training allowances are accordingly paid in floristry (634 euros in West Germany and 425 euros in East Germany) and in hairdressing (575 euros in North Rhine-Westphalia and 325 euros in Thuringia). In the East German floristry and the Thuringian hairdressing trade, the training allowance is even below the statutory minimum training allowance of 550 euros per month.
In many industries, an increasing shortage of skilled workers has increased the pressure to adapt in the direction of better training conditions, emphasized the head of the WSI tariff archive, Thorsten Schulten. This is noticeable, for example, in agriculture and the confectionery industry in eastern Germany, where training salaries are now slightly above the western level, which indicates a significant shortage of skilled workers in these areas. In most collective bargaining sectors, however, people are still paid better in the West.
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