Thursday, October 28, 2021
Study: Two thirds are women
Millions benefit from a minimum wage of twelve euros
The minimum wage should rise to twelve euros per hour. According to a study by the Hans Böckler Foundation, this represents an enormous increase in wages for employees in certain occupational groups. Contrary to what was feared, an increase would hardly affect the tariffs.
According to a study, around 8.6 million employees currently do not even earn the twelve euros minimum wage that the traffic light parties have provided for in their coalition negotiations. Around two thirds of those affected are women, according to a study by the trade union-related Institute of Economics and Social Sciences (WSI) of the Hans Böckler Foundation.
The increase in the minimum wage would above all improve the wages of employees without a collective agreement, as they are roughly three times as likely to be affected by wages below twelve euros gross per hour as employees who are paid according to the collective bargaining agreement. “A minimum wage of twelve euros is not only widely accepted, it would also mean noticeable wage increases for many employees,” said WSI labor market expert Toralf Pusch.
According to the analysis, for the vast majority of employment relationships in which the higher minimum wage would have to lead directly to a wage increase, the main job is for the respective employee. That applies to 7.3 million in the current year. Another 1.3 million are secondary jobs. Of the main jobs, in turn, around three million full-time and almost 4.3 million part-time positions.
“No deep interference in collective bargaining autonomy”
An increase in the minimum wage to twelve euros would result in an average wage increase of 1.0 percent for the entire group of employees paid under the collective agreement. Among the employees without a tariff, however, the plus was significantly greater at 4.1 percent. This shows that the higher minimum wage “does not represent a deep interference with collective bargaining autonomy,” said Pusch. It would be “above all an effective support to stabilize the wages of employees without a collective agreement”.
Up to now, wages below twelve euros were most common in retail, healthcare, building maintenance, catering and social services. According to occupations, specialists in catering and housekeeping, salespeople, medical assistants, cooks and professional drivers were severely affected. There are also assistants in cleaning, housekeeping, kitchens and logistics.
A study sponsored by the union-affiliated Institute for Macroeconomics and Business Cycle Research recently showed that an increase in the minimum wage to twelve euros would make macroeconomic sense. In the long term, economic output would increase by around 50 billion euros a year. According to this, government revenues will increase by around 20 billion euros annually.