3w ago

Germany to raise minimum wage to €14.60 by 2027

www.dw.com /en/germany-to-raise-minimum-wage-to-1460-by-2027/a-73058477

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.

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still not sufficient to be classified as safe from poverty by EU standards
- What is the definition of safe from poverty?
  What I found was this:
  The at-risk-of-poverty rate is the share of people with an equivalised disposable income (after social transfer) below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold, which is set at 60 % of the national median equivalised disposable income after social transfers.
  From https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Glossary%3AAt-risk-of-poverty_rate
  By that definition, it is not possible to have a minimum wage "safe from poverty". Since the minimum will always be below the median.
  
  minimum wage equal or larger to 60% of median income (simplified) is considered to be not at risk of poverty, 14,60€ in germany is less than 60% of median income and thus cant be considered safe from poverty by EU standards.
  
  Of course it's possible. The minimum wage doesn't directly affect the median wage (unless more than half the population only gets the minimum wage).
  If you think it's impossible, please explain why.
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...
Good for Germany.
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

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