In the trades, trainees in Germany still earn below average.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Collectively agreed training allowances in Germany increased by 4.2 percent on average nationwide in 2022 compared to the previous year. This is reported by the Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB). That was significantly more than in the two corona years 2020 and 2021, when the increase was only 2.5 percent.
On average, the apprentices in the collective bargaining companies received 1,028 euros gross per month over all years of training – and thus more than 1,000 euros for the first time. The difference between West and East Germany has narrowed further, trainee wages in the East are only 17 euros lower than in the West.
Due to the high inflation, the trainees – like most employees – still had to accept real wage losses, the BIBB clarifies. Because the price development could not be taken into account, especially in wage agreements from the beginning of 2022 or earlier.
In some cases, the collective bargaining partners have agreed on special payments. However, these are not reflected in the average collectively agreed training allowances.
The remuneration of the trainees is considered a key to attracting more young people into vocational training and thus attracting more skilled workers. Since 2009, the demand for positions in vocational training has been declining. In the Corona years, the number of beginners then dropped even further.
In order to make apprenticeships more attractive, the federal government introduced minimum wages for trainees in 2020. These form a general lower limit for the remuneration of apprentices, which was 585 euros in the first year of apprenticeship in 2022. However, the minimum wages had no influence on the increase in collective wages now recorded by the BIBB, because they only apply to trainees in companies that are not bound by collective bargaining agreements.
Collective wages for apprentices may continue to be below the minimum wage. In 2021, that was only the case for around one percent of trainees who were learning in a company that was bound by collective bargaining agreements – but it applied to large parts of the hairdressing trade, for example.
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Irrespective of this, there are still enormous differences in the trainee wages regulated by the collective bargaining partners: the best earners are the apprentices in the carpenter profession. On average, they earn 1,254 euros per month for all apprenticeship years.
Craft apprentices usually earn below average
Trainees in the construction industry also receive an above-average amount, for example in the occupations of bricklayer (EUR 1,209) or pipeline fitter (EUR 1,192). Commercial occupations such as bank clerk (EUR 1,201) or clerk for insurance and finance (EUR 1,196) are also doing relatively well.
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Overall, around 60 percent of the trainees who learned in a company bound by a collective agreement received a training allowance of more than 1000 euros in 2022, a little more than a fifth even more than 1150 euros.
In contrast, for around one in seven apprentices, the collectively agreed training allowance in 2022 was below 850 euros. A nationwide average value of less than 850 euros was determined for 19 occupations. Most of these occupations belonged to the trades, such as painters and varnishers (848 euros), bakers (782), chimney sweeps (723) or hairdressers (657). The overall lowest collectively agreed training allowances were in the profession of orthopedic shoemaker at 652 euros.
The training allowances also differed significantly between the training areas. Above the German average of 1028 euros, the collectively agreed training allowances were 1114 euros in the public sector and in industry and trade, where it was 1081 euros. They were below that with 1002 euros in agriculture, in the liberal professions with 946 euros and in crafts, where they came to 930 euros.
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