According to a recent report of the Institute for Labour and Qualification (IAQ) of the University Duisburg – Essen, in 2008 the incidence of low pay (defined as the share of employees earning less than two-thirds of the median hourly wage, or Euro 9.06 in 2008) in Germany was 20.7% -- slightly less than the 21.5% share of 2006, but much higher than the 1995 incidence (below 15%) and also still quite high compared with other industrialized countries. In 2008, the low-pay incidence was with 29.9% among females more than double that among males. Across industries, the share of low-paid was highest in cleaning (78.4%), hospitality (60.5%) and security (54.0%). In retail the low-pay incidence was 34.0%, in the care sector 26.7%. The IAQ researchers go into efforts to conclude industry collective agreements that the government, if covering 50% of employees at national level, based on the Posted Workers Act can declare generally binding. In 2010 this has been realized for low-pay sectors such as waste treatment (January, 130,000 employed), commercial cleaning (March, 860,000), and the care sector (August, 810,000). Though the coming into being of these industry-specific minimum wages may diminish the share of the very low-paid, the researchers make the reservation that the agreed minimum wage rates remain quite low, below the low-pay threshold of Euro 9.06 (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 2 December 2009 and Year 3 March, May and July-August 2010).
English: G. Bosch, C. Weinkopf (2010) EWERC EC project Minimum Wage System and Changing Industrial Relations in Europe. National Report Germany. Duisburg - Essen: IAQ (http://www.mbs.ac.uk/research/europeanemployment/projects …)
For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009.