Chancellor Frederick Merz said this week to give the Bundestag Lecture – in the way of its specific fort – one of the next key priorities for its government: Unemployment benefits, or their plan to improve citizens’ money (“civil’s income”).
Hey a family tune rank on the subject of work: Kama, he argued, needs to be worth it. He wanted that “make sure that people in Germany would once again see that their efforts are paid and the principle of salary related to the performance would be applied once again.”
But his comment was somewhat lower than the emerging figures a few days ago: in 2024, some 826,000 working people depended on profit, or civil money (“civil’s income”) because it is called in Germany.
This represents an increase of around 30,000 since 2023-the first time the number of employed people who received a top-up increased in Sion 2015.
This is probably not a coincidence, the year Germany made it the first original minimum. At that time, more than one million workers were still down at the state profit, a number that decreases continuously. The cost of these additional benefits costs the state about € 7 billion ($ 8.1 billion) in 2024 – more than € 5.7 billion paid for such cases in 2022.
The government revealed the data in response to a parliamentary question of the Bundestag member of the Socialist Left Party, who said to DW: “It is unacceptable that hundreds of thousands of people depend on state aid despite work. It supports low wages and ends exploitation of labor.”
Minimum wage
Ince believes that these figures suggest that Germany’s minimum wage is very low. Although it was adequately picked up by the previous government – in early 2023 – until € 12 – it has only increased to minimal since then for the present € 12.82.
On Friday, the German Minimum Wages Commission, which includes employers’ associations and trade union’s aristocratic class, announced that the minimum wage would be sunny in two phases: January 1, 2026 by € 13.90, and then a year later due to lack of € 14.60, € 15, € 15, € 15, due to lack of € 140, € 15.
The founder of the campaign group Helena Steinhoss, free (“approval-free”), which supports people on profit, says small leakage has not put up the cost of increase in fare and life in the years of the previous fees. Average fare in Germany, for example, increased to 4.7% alone last year and 8.5% in Berlin.
“I say that this is our answer why more people have to top their earnings, because the minimum wage, even if you work all the time, does not cover what it is considered to cover,” Sayinhus said.
Part -time work problem
However, some economists argue that the number of people working at minimum wages is very low who requires benefits.
“You need to identify that most people do not work full -time. Most of them are training or part -time,” said Senior Economist Bazaar Economics Holgar Shafar at the German Economic Institute in Colgon (IW).
“The minimum wage will not be in any way because this is the reason that people cannot earn life from their income, not less for wages, but there is a low number of hours.”
The figures returned to this: According to the latest data of the Federal Employment Agency, the benefits that 826,000 workers receive, only around 81,000 were full -time.
But this is no excuse to pay low wages, according to Ince. “The fact is: Current minimum wage is a poverty wage! Employers can’t talk in their own way,” said.
“The number of people receiving supplementary benefits depends to a large extent on low wages. One of my recent inquiries revealed that people earning for full -time work cannot do enough housing in half the major cities of Germany and are far away for financial assistance.”
Poverty growth
In any case, as Steinhus argued, many people only work part -time, the reason is that they have children or other dependencies that need care, and lack of childcare infrastructure in many cities in Germany. IW calculated last year that 306,000 children under the age of three in Germany are not a place in a Nurry School or Predaullah, even though they are legally entitled to one.
A 2021 study by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) found that people working more children, more likely they would require benefits. The legalist of the Left Party argued that if the state invested more in childcare locations, “it would enable many people to avoid the trap of part -time work.”
Looking out for employers?
Nevertheless, Schäfer argues that the minimum wage raising is not an answer, and may be reversed. “This can make the situation worse if companies restrict their demand for work due to high costs,” he told DW.
Steinhos are not convinced: “The associations of employers have made this argument for the last 10 years, but which did not prove to be true even once in the last 10 years,” he said.
“Of course, there are some companies that struggle when the minimum wage increased, but the fact that they can appoint people.”
Merz and their welfare improvement
Schäfer believes that the number of people requiring a top-up has recently increased relative and the overall below trend since 2015 intact. Last year’s growth, he said, perhaps the labor market had to do more than the general economic conditions than something else.
Meanwhile, merge, in an effort to achieve more people in the laboratory market, are preferred to stick to their plans to improve the precious benefit system – even if some of those few workers will need help anyway.
“Unknowingly, Merz’s arguments about the work are incorrectly rounds,” Stinehoss said. “When he says, ‘the work needs to be worth it,’ he means that the uncontrolled profit should be reduced. But the minimum you need is independent of whether poor laborers earn more, there is no question. But it is not a question to reduce the profit, and it plays the poorest against each other.”
Edited by Reena Goldenburg
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