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Minimum wage: Heil expects a significant increase in 2024
Expects a proposal from the minimum wage commission in the summer: Hubertus Heil. photo
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
Minister of Labor Heil expects a significantly higher minimum wage from 2024 – and thus intervenes in a debate that is always hotly debated. FDP Vice Kubicki finds this unfortunate.
Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil expects a “significant increase” in the minimum wage next January. That’s what the SPD politician told the “Bild am Sonntag”.
“Because we not only continue to have high inflation, but also decent wage increases, which will be reflected in the upcoming increase in the minimum wage.” In the summer, the minimum wage commission will make him a proposal. The minimum wage in Germany is currently 12 euros per hour.
FDP Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki told the newspapers of the Funke media group that he did not see Heil’s statements as a demand but as a prognosis. However, he finds it unfortunate that a federal minister is “publicly intervening on this issue”. “It can give the impression that the Federal Government is undermining the actual purpose of the Minimum Wage Commission, which is to keep political demands out of this debate,” said Kubicki.
Employers warn of “unrealistic heights”
In view of the high inflation, a dispute about the next minimum wage increase had already flared up last month. Social organizations called for a sharp increase to 14 euros and more, employers warned of “unrealistic heights”.
The traffic light coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP exceptionally raised the minimum wage by law last year. On October 1, 2022, it had risen from EUR 10.45 to EUR 12. The minimum wage commission with representatives of employers and employees should then propose the next step in the increase. This is to be done by June 30 with effect from January 1, 2024.
With a view to the one-time increase by the federal government last year, the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA) criticized Heil’s latest statements sharply: “State wage setting instead of collective bargaining policy seems to be the stipulation from the Ministry of Labor,” said BDA chief executive Steffen Kampeter on Sunday in a statement Opinion. So far, there has always been talk of a one-time intervention. “The coalition leadership must decide whether it will continue to tolerate the Federal Minister of Labor’s continued transgressions.”
Labor Minister Heil also wants to introduce a law by the summer according to which federal contracts may only be awarded to companies that adhere to collective agreements. “If we as a state spend tax money, then entrepreneurs who don’t pay their people properly should no longer be allowed to benefit from it.” The SPD, Greens and FDP had already agreed this in their coalition agreement in order to strengthen collective bargaining. By June, he and Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) will present a draft law that stipulates adherence to collective bargaining agreements in the federal government, said Heil. If everything goes well in the Bundestag, the law should come into force on January 1, 2024.