The hospitality industry in particular will face higher personnel costs as a result of the increase in the minimum wage in October.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Almost 22 percent of all employment relationships are affected by the increase in the minimum wage to twelve euros in October, which corresponds to a good one in five jobs. The intervention in the wage structure is thus significantly greater than when the statutory lower wage limit was introduced in 2015, when around eleven percent of employment relationships were affected.
This is the result of a current analysis by the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB). The increase decided by the governing coalition plays a role in particular for marginally employed and part-time workers. Because seven out of ten mini-jobbers earned less than twelve euros an hour last year. It was around 24 percent for part-time jobs subject to social security contributions and nine percent for full-time jobs.
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The Nuremberg researchers’ calculations are based on data from the 2018 structure of earnings survey. They date from before the corona pandemic and are therefore not influenced by the sometimes high use of short-time work. The hourly wages from the structure of earnings survey were then extrapolated up to the year 2021 using the gross earnings index of the Federal Statistical Office.
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Wage increases that have taken place this year or are due by October, which could reduce the degree to which the minimum wage adjustment will be affected, are not taken into account. For example, collective agreements were recently concluded in the hospitality industry that provide for starting wages of more than twelve euros.
In the temporary work sector, too, employers and the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) recently raised the collectively agreed minimum wages in the sector in order to get above the statutory lower wage limit.
Starting in October, wages will have to be revised upwards, particularly in agriculture, the hospitality industry and personal services. In restaurants and hotels and in agriculture, around every second job subject to social security contributions was paid less than twelve euros in 2021.
The finance and insurance, information and communication, mining, energy and manufacturing sectors are less affected by the minimum wage increase. The IAB researchers attribute this, among other things, to the relatively high prevalence of area tariffs in the areas mentioned.
The study authors also examined how the planned minimum wage increase will affect new hires. Here, the concern is likely to be particularly great, since the salary usually increases with increasing service.
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The researchers used data from the IAB job survey, a representative quarterly survey of companies. However, only new hires subject to social security contributions are recorded here, so mini-jobbers are left out.
According to this, in 2021 almost 21 percent of newly hired employees received less than twelve euros per hour. The level of concern was thus higher than in the case of the existing employment relationships subject to social security contributions, at 13.4 percent.
Employers in eastern Germany in particular will have to pay better wages for employees they bring on board. Last year, 28.4 percent of all newly hired employees in a job subject to social security contributions earned less than twelve euros. In the West it was 18.8 percent.
More on this: Study: Minimum wage has hardly any negative effects