Germany has an expensive civil service system. And it’s getting even more expensive now. The reason: Since the citizen’s allowance increased again at the turn of the year, it has reached a level that approaches the earnings of civil servants in lower wage groups.
But according to a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court, this is not okay. The difference between civil servant pay and the amount of citizen’s benefit must be at least 15 percent. Because this no longer applies to some correctional officers, for example, they now receive more money.
Civil servants receive millions of euros more – because of citizens’ money
As a result, the federal states are faced with double-digit million sums that are additionally owed from the increased citizen’s allowance. The “Bild” newspaper recently asked the federal states and found considerable additional costs: Civil servants in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will receive more money retroactively from the beginning of 2023. In total, around 20 million euros more. In Schleswig-Holstein it is 23.5 million, Hamburg spends 62 million more.
This development gives rise to two possible interpretations. First: Civil servants who are already doing well are becoming increasingly unaffordable. On average, they receive an annual salary of around 50,000 euros, as the employment agents at Stepstone have calculated. They are almost non-terminable, they leave the service at the age of 63 and then receive a pension of 3,240 euros.
All of these numbers are average values according to the Federal Statistical Office. In particular, the pension, which also includes excellent medical coverage, is princely compared to what other employees achieve. According to the pension insurance, the average payment amounts to pensioners in the west are 1,100 euros and in the east around 800 euros.
Raffelhüschen calls for fewer civil servants: “That should never have happened”
The comparatively high civil servant pensions, which are raised from taxpayers’ money and not through a pay-as-you-go system like all other professional groups, repeatedly attract attention from politicians and economists. They want to hire fewer civil servants.
The Freiburg pension expert Bernd Raffelhüschen recently called for civil servant status to be limited to sovereign tasks. That would mean: on the judiciary, police and financial administration in the narrower sense. “It is difficult to see why university professors or teachers have to be civil servants,” said Raffelhüschen. “This should never have happened.”
The second way to interpret the expensive interaction between citizens’ money and civil servants’ salaries is to question the amount of citizens’ money. At around 3,000 euros, which a family of four is entitled to, including housing and heating subsidies, it is generous by European standards.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz is of this opinion and wants to reduce citizens’ money again. In his opinion, savings should be made in basic child welfare, citizen’s allowance and the heating law. “Everything just doesn’t work anymore,” he recently stated on a talk show. The past increase in citizens’ allowance by an average of twelve percent violated the “wage gap requirement” and was a “brake for the entire labor market”.
The article “Because of citizens’ money, civil servants now receive millions of euros more” comes from Business Punk.