After years of debate, on January 1 Germany finally implemented its first-ever blanket national minimum wage set at 8.5 euros (before tax) an hour. Previously employers and unions had traditionally negotiated wages without any State involvement. However faced with a proliferation of low paid sectors combined with wage/social dumping practices both the unions and the SPD party who had been battling for several years in favor of a German minimum wage finally won through, though not without continued controversy. For employers the new law may result in fewer jobs, higher prices and increased administrative costs especially for SMEs. Unions have warned employers not to try and avoid this new law.
Six temporary sector derogations. The very day after Andrea Nahles (SPD) most important project fixing a national minimum wage came into force, the Minister for Social Affairs and Employment triumphantly walked into a bakery in her electoral stomping ground in Rhineland Palatinate to make sure it was being applied. “It is one thing passing a law on the minimum wage, it is another making sure the law is applied”, the Minister explained to the group of journalists present. According to the Minist
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