The Federal Association of German Textile Industry (BTE) sees the decided increase of the minimum wage to 13.90 euros on January 1, 2026 and 14.60 euros on January 1, 2027. Against the background of stagnating or declining sales and at the same time increasing costs, the BTE warns of serious structural fractures in the inpatient textile, shoe and leather goods retail.
BTE President Mark Rauschen explains: “The minimum wages have increased by over 30 % since the beginning of 2022. Now an increase of 14 % is coming again. The crux is that this also requires adjustments to higher salary levels. The wage spiral is turned significantly upwards, which should now be finally driven in the red or in the ruin. The risk of insolvency and business closures in the inpatient textile, shoe and leather goods are also to be feared.
According to the BTE, most shops can no longer shoulder additional increases in personnel costs. According to a current BTE survey, half of the textile, shoe and leather goods dealers were deficient last year. With more than a quarter of the companies, the operational loss even amounted to over 5 % of sales.
BTE general manager Rolf Pangels also sees the dangers to dual vocational training: “It is feared that the young people will increasingly do without a solid, existential training for a successful professional future in favor of helper jobs. In the end this is accompanied by damage to our dual vocational training system.”
Mark Rauschen concludes: “Although a zero round was brought into play by us, which was not achieved under the given political constellations. The lobbying of the associations HDE and BTE was at least able to prevent an even higher minimum wage. With a view to the future, we are already warning that no further, politically influenced raising of the minimum wage occurs.”
