A government-appointed commission announced that Germany would raise its minimum wage twice over the next two years. The move would give Germans the second-highest minimum wage in the EU, after Luxembourg.
Why do even modest improvements happen by 2027 or some other far flung date, but cuts can happen overnight?
Because lobbyists get angry and markets get nervous when you mandate a change overnight, but no one seems to care if people get nervous angry
A business model that guarantees your employees poverty when working like that for their whole life, is not a business model. It’s an exploitation model.
And there are still voices against least income with arguments like:
- It increases inflation - inflation increased when companies got greedy, not when paying higher wages
- It destroys jobs - that didn’t happen at all
- Simple things like hair cuts, farming products will become too extensive - also didn’t happen - at least not because of least income
- It’s not necessary since incomes went up already due to labor and experts shortage - are they for real?
And there are still discussions to exempt things like seasonal workers or even elderly care workers from it - unbelievable.
I’ve never encountered someone arguing against minimum wage increase IRL. It’s probably because they fear the very high chance they’ll get slapped.
A coworker if mine is actually arguing against minimum wage because his wife, who studied engineering is barley above minimum wage and increasing minimum wage would invalidate her extra effort for her diploma… You find a lot of mind acrobatics around arguments against minimum wage…
Arguing for her own underpayment seems a bit silly.
Good for Germany.
