The battle around minimum wage, one of the central themes in the election campaign, goes on at regional level. On August 1, the Land of Schleswig-Holstein will introduce the obligations to pay minimum wage amounting to €9.18/hour to employees working in businesses that have public contracts. On that date, 13 Lander (out of 16), all run or jointly run by opposition parties, will have similar regional laws imposing wage levels and/or social standards in the area of public contracts. The European Court of Justice already condemned this practice in 2008. A legal expertise ordered by Bavarian employers is questioning this practice, which the authors claim violates the free movement of services at European level, the Collective Agreements Act and even the German constitution. (Ref. 130476)
12 Lander with different social and pay requirements. Since the Federal government and the Bundestag are hindering the introduction of universal minimum wage as requested by the trade unions and German left-wing parties, they’ve decided to resist in regions where they have a majority. Between 2010 and today, 13 Lander have thus introduced new laws for “compliance with wage levels” (Tariftreuegesetz) and the award of public contracts.
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