Every third employee is threatened with a gross pension of less than 1,300 euros

Every third employee in Germany is threatened with a gross pension of less than 1,300 euros per month after 45 full-time professional years. The newspapers of the Funke media group reported, citing a response from the Federal Ministry of Labor to a request from the left in the Bundestag, that after deducting health and long-term care insurance, this meant about 1160 euros net in retirement benefits.

According to the newspapers, the answer further shows that at the current pension level, employees must earn at least 2800 euros a month before deductions in order to get a statutory pension of 1300 gross. According to the current status, anyone who wants to get a pension of EUR 1,500 in old age must earn at least EUR 3,200 gross full-time per month. In order to receive 2500 euros gross from the pension insurance, a monthly wage of 5350 euros before taxes and duties is currently required.

Pension level most recently at 49.4 percent

Left parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch told the Funke newspapers that it was “unacceptable” that a third of employees were only threatened with a small pension after 45 years of full-time work. In the east, every second one is affected. The federal government’s figures show “that many employees not only earn too little, but also receive too little pension for their lifetime achievement”.

It undermines the trust in the statutory pension insurance, “if after a complete working life only a few hundred euros remain above the Hartz IV level”. Bartsch demanded that the pension level should rise to at least over 50 percent.

According to the pension insurance report in 2021, the level was last at 49.4 percent. The figure shows the relationship between the amount of the pension to be expected after 45 years of contributions and the average income of an employee.

“Traffic light” parties rule out raising the retirement age

In its answer, the Federal Ministry of Labor pointed out that the analysis of the figures did not allow any direct statements to be made about the level of earnings over the course of an entire working life. The background is that there may be wage increases in the future, which could not be taken into account for the current survey. The government also emphasized that “in principle, no conclusions can be drawn about the standard of living in old age” from acquired pension entitlements, since additional old-age income outside of the statutory pension insurance would have to be taken into account.

There have been warnings for years that the aging of society is threatening pension levels. The coalition agreement of the “traffic light” parties provides for the pension level to be secured at 48 percent. An increase in the retirement age is excluded. For the first time there should be an entry into a partial fund for the statutory pension insurance.