Berlin (German news agency) – Of over three million full-time employees in the east, 51 percent earn less than 3,000 euros gross per month, in the west it is only 31 percent. This is the result of new figures that the left faction asked the Federal Statistical Office and which the newspapers of the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” report on.
They show that even 33 years after German reunification there are still serious differences in wage levels between East and West, especially in the lower income brackets. While 16.5 percent of the 19 million full-time employees in the West earned less than 2,500 euros gross per month last year, there were twice as many in the East. The situation is similar in the “under 2,000 euros” category, which accounted for 6.4 percent in the west and 12.3 percent in the east.
The Eastern Commissioner for the left-wing faction, Sören Pellmann, sees the low wage level in Germany as an “attack on the middle class and thus a danger to democracy,” as he told RND. “If every second person in the East earns less than 3,000 euros gross full-time, then a society can hardly stand it in the long term, and that also explains many a survey result,” said Pellmann. The left-wing politician made a connection between low wages and low pensions and warned of an “old-age poverty zone in the East”.
Pellmann called for a “wage and pension offensive for all of Germany”. Significantly higher wages and a major pension reform are the order of the day, he said.