In the presence of the Minister for Employment, Andrea Nahles who was attending a congress in Berlin under the heading “Is the minimum wage being applied everywhere?” the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) gave its preliminary, and more or less positive, findings on the law that introduced a national minimum wage on 01 January 2015. The law has most benefited low and unskilled workers in the former East Germany. Contrary to the disaster scenarios outlined by several German economists in 2014, the minimum wage has not in fact destroyed jobs. However the DGB did criticize abuses and attempted breaches of the law. The union confederation called for stronger monitoring by the customs agencies. The DGB also opposes the idea of lowering the minimum wage level paid to refugees. The confederation maintains that one cannot have a two-tier labor market (first and second class).
No negative effects on the labor market. For Stefan Körzell, member of management at DGB, the minimum wage law that came into force on 01 January 2015 with the level set at 8.5 EUR was quite simply a “great success”. The main beneficiaries are the low skilled and unskilled, primarily from former East Germany, who have seen their wages rise by about 9.3%, which is two to three times the percentage rise for the higher wage categories. The Minister for Employment Andrea Nahles stated “the law is t
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