Coalition agreement: CDU general secretary rejects “political minimum wage”

CDU general secretary Carsten Linnemann excludes a “political minimum wage” and thus rejects statements by SPD general secretary Matthias Miersch. Linnemann told the newspapers of the Bavarian media group: “I understand the pressure that the SPD has through the membership survey. But we still have to stick to the coalition agreement.”

A minimum wage of 15 euros can be reached, but the minimum wage commission will ultimately decide whether it will actually happen. “Political minimum wages that are decided in the Bundestag plenary hall have been excluded. The negotiators also know that,” said Linnemann.

Miersch had threatened politics with the determination of the minimum wage if the responsible commission deviates from its criteria and should therefore not recommend an increase to 15 euros next year. “I assume that this commission will actually come to this result (of 15 euros),” said Miersch in the podcast “Table.briefings”. “But in other cases we have already proven that if this commission does not act accordingly, for example, that we can then work legislative,” added Miersch.

He alluded to 2022 when the then traffic light government made of SPD, Greens and FDP increased the minimum wage in no way to 12 euros on October 1, 2022. This had caused massive criticism from the economy.

There had already been disputes about the minimum wage between the Union and the SPD. Probably the new Chancellor and CDU boss Friedrich Merz had said the “Bild am Sonntag”, possibly only in 2027 the amount of 15 euros. In a paper paper on the coalition agreement, it says: “The minimum wage will increase to 15 euros by 2026.” Since January 1, 2025, the statutory minimum wage is 12.82 euros per hour.