Minimum wage. Regarding minimum wage, there are two sides: on the one hand the parties from the outgoing coalition (the Christian Democratic Union, CDU, its Bavarian ally, the Social Democratic Union, CSU, and the liberal party, FDP) keep calling for minimum wage negotiated regularly by the social partners, depending on the sectors and the regions. On the other, the opposition (Social Democratic Party, SPD, the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, and Die Linke, the far-left party) want the introduction of statutory minimum wage determined by the State.
Convinced that minimum wage defined by politicians would lead to massive job destruction, Angela Merkel, in power since 2005, still favors the social partners’ bargaining independence. But with wage dumping in some sectors, the chancellor now wants to force the social partners to agree on minimum wage in all sectors without a collective agreement.