On June 30, during a press conference on the minimum wage some six months after the law came into force, Andrea Nahles, Minister for Social Affairs and Employment announced to much surprise all round that the administrative requirements related to the law would be reduced. A clause that required businesses in nine different branches to document the effective working time of employees’ earning up to 2,957€ per month was heavily criticized by both employers and the Christian Democrats and will now be revised. Going forward this obligation will no longer apply for employees earning up to 2,000€ per month over a year. Another concession was delivered to employers: the highly controversial clause requiring businesses to check that their subcontractors are also in full respect of the new law will also be softened. The Minister indicated that these changes would be introduced next week via a decree whilst the law itself will not be modified.
A highly successful law. Six months after its implementation on January 01, 2015, the Social Democrat Minister has qualified this historic law that introduced a minimum wage of 8.5€ an hour for Germany’s workers has been qualified as a great success (c.f. article No. 8498). Mentioning the new positive employment figures published by the Federal Employment Agency on the same day the Minister underlined that the law had not led to the massive job losses predicted by several economists.
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