Berlin – It sounds like good news for millions of employees: The minimum wage will rise to 12 euros – and that in a snap. It should be ready next year. Resistance to this is not to be expected in the traffic light coalition negotiations that begin on Wednesday. The SPD and the Greens are in favor of it anyway, and the FDP has also come to terms with 12 euros. There is no debate about how useful it is to set wages politically. It would be appropriate.
Minimum wages are marginal, but necessary
Minimum wages are a necessary evil. It is always better to trust the judgment of employers and trade unions – without the state. But it is also true that there are excesses on the labor market. The minimum wage should put a stop sign. Instead, politics had disregarded collective bargaining autonomy, uniquely. When the minimum wage was introduced in 2015, it was the SPD Labor Minister Andrea Nahles who insisted that an independent commission should decide on future adjustments to the lower wage limit. Otherwise, according to Nahles, you open the door to “arbitrariness and populism”. The warning seems to have passed.
Of course: there must be compromises in every coalition. But the FDP as a party of the market economy should not have allowed the minimum wage to become a political plaything. The left and parts of the trade unions are already demanding 13 euros. More is always possible. There is a threat of outbidding.
Minimum wage: The economy could also handle 12 euros
It may be that the German economy can cope with the 12 euros. After all, the signs point to an upswing. But that’s not all good. What remains is a regulatory sin and the duping of the minimum wage commission. Both will have an impact. The damage is great.
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