The country plans to increase minimum wage to 9.19 euro an hour in 2019 and further to 9.35 euro in 2020. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government introduced a national minimum wage of 8.50 euro an hour for more than 3 million workers in 2015. Minimum wage was last raised in 2017, to the current 8.84 euro. Eurofound analysis shows that the minimum wage policy introduced in 2015 significantly lifted the wages of the lowest-paid employees, particularly the lower-skilled, younger ones or those working in services. The beneficial effects of the minimum wage policy on real wage growth and the wage cohesion of the workforce seem to have come at no significant price. Employment data show the employment prospects of those employees who have benefited more from the introduction of the minimum wage have not deteriorated. These conclusions are confirmed by the latest report of the Minimum Wage Committee.
Read on: in English (1) … Read on: in English (2) … The Eurofound paper: in English … The Minimum Wage Committee report: in German …
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers or Sanne van der Gaag, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Willy De Backer wdebacker@etui.org © ETUI