Minimum wage to 15 euros – each fourth would have two euros more

An increase in the minimum wage to 15 euros per hour would improve earnings in a good 9.5 million jobs. This emerges from figures from the Federal Statistical Office of April 2024, which the left in the Bundestag asked. Accordingly, the hourly wage is around every fourth job – namely 24.4 percent – below this brand. In the East German federal states without Berlin, it is even 30 percent. Women are affected by 27.9 percent more often than men with 21.1 percent.

The minimum wage in Germany is currently 12.82 euros. In the election campaign, not only the left, but also SPD, Greens and BSW demands a rapid increase to 15 euros. Union and FDP see this skeptically, provided that the increase does not emerge from the minimum wage commission. The AfD does not determine in the election program.

“The numbers clearly show us how many people benefit from when Germany is finally implementing the minimum wage directive of the EU and raising the minimum wage to 15 euros,” said the left-wing top candidate Heidi Reichinnek, who had asked the figures at Destatis. “Jobs in the catering trade are paid to almost three quarters with less than 15 euros per hour – there are over half in the cultural area.” She referred to the differences between east and west and between men and women. A higher minimum wage can alleviate the risk of poverty in old age, she said.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) recently spoke of seven million workers who could benefit from an increase in the minimum wage. “Hundreds of thousands less would be dependent on the citizens’ allowance,” said Scholz.