Minimum wage in Germany

Minimum wage in Germany is €12.82 per hour, pre-tax since 1 January 2025. The legislation (German: Gesetz zur Regelung eines allgemeinen Mindestlohns) was introduced on January 1, 2015, by Angela Merkel's third government, a coalition between the SPD and the CDU. The implementation of a minimum wage was the SPD's main request during the coalition's negotiations as its central electoral promise during the 2013 federal election campaign. Previously, Germany had minimum wages only in specific sectors, negotiated by trade unions, and some were below the minimum wage level introduced in 2015.

The initial minimum wage was 8.50 euros per hour, pre-tax. Since then, Germany's Minimum Wage Commission (Mindestlohnkommission) regularly proposes adjustments to the minimum wage level. It was last increased to 12 euros per hour pre-tax in October 2022.

Due to inflation, in December 2022 this wage was worth as much as 9.80 euros were worth in January 2015. A €12 wage implies a gross nominal monthly salary of €2,080 for a full-time employee, meaning someone working forty hours per week. The increase to €12 was decided on 3 June 2022 by the Bundestag (400 to 41, with 200 abstentions).

There remain exceptions to the wage minimum for workers on a traineeship, employees during their vocational training, volunteers, internships up to three months, young people and the long-term unemployed.

In order to adjust the amount of the minimum wage, the German government instituted a permanent commission, with nine members: a president, three workers’ representatives, three employers’ representatives and two economists that do not have voting rights within the commission. It assesses Germany's overall economic performance to find a suitable minimum wage level. The first minimum wage adjustment was made in June 2016, and was followed two years later by another adjustment, in June 2018, that raised the minimum wage to €9.19.

The minimum wage was one of the most controversial topics during the 2013 legislative election campaign. The social democratic party SPD, the German green party and the left-wing party Die Linke, were in favour of a general minimum wage. By contrast, the economically liberal FDP, and the socially conservative CDU, remained sceptical.

The economic research institution CESifo Group Munich advocated against the introduction of a minimum wage of €8.50. According to a study of the Center for Economic Studies of the Ifo Institute in 2014, the minimum wage was predicted to cost up to 900,000 jobs, especially in the eastern part of Germany. However, a study from the London School of Economics and Political Science contradicted it by demonstrating that the minimum wage did not actually lead to job losses. Indeed, the Economic Policy Research Discussion Paper, which analysed employment levels in Germany across different regions from 2011 to 2016, showed that the unemployment rate decreased in regions with previously lower wage levels. Besides, a study of the German Institute for Economic Research showed that the minimum wage increased the hourly wage, but not the total income of people who work in the low-wage sector. Since hourly wages increased slightly, working hours decreased simultaneously to offset higher costs.

The October 2022 minimum wage increase to 12 euros per hour, was estimated to increase the pay of over 6 million people according to Labour Minister Hubertus Heil, and should not reduce the number of jobs, a prime concern of critics.