2024-08-31 02:54:30
More than 30 years after reunification, there is still a large economic gap between East and West. But the gaps are closing.
Reunification took place more than 30 years ago, but the division of Germany is still noticeable in some places. The differences are particularly evident in economic indicators. West Germans still earn more on average and have greater assets.
t-online provides an overview of the economic situation in eastern and western German federal states:
Although salaries have converged in recent years, there is still a clear gap between East and West. In 2021, workers in the East earned more than 30 percent less than people in West Germany. The highest average monthly gross income was earned by people in Hamburg at 5,209 euros. The lowest average salary was earned by workers in Thuringia at 3,542 euros.
More recent data is not available in detail. However, the German Economic Institute (IW) assumes that the significant increase in the minimum wage has already closed the wage gap to some extent in the meantime. This is already evident in the average values: in 2023, according to figures from the Federal Statistical Office, the average gross monthly earnings without special payments nationwide were 4,468 euros. In the west it was 4,578 euros, in the east 3,754 euros.
What is also striking when looking at the figures is that while salaries are lower on average in the East, the gap between men and women is smaller than in the West. In Brandenburg there is virtually no difference between the sexes, and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Saxony women also earn on average more than 90 percent of the average gross wage of men in the respective federal state.
No western federal state manages this, with Schleswig-Holstein coming particularly close with a share of 87.2 percent. The gap is particularly large in Baden-Württemberg. Here, women earn on average only 78.6 percent of the average gross wage of men. The figures are based on surveys from 2021.
The historical explanation for many of these differences lies in the fact that women in the GDR were expected to work full-time just like men. If a woman had children, there were childcare options available from an early stage. At the same time, there was also great social and political pressure for women to use these options and contribute to the national wealth through their work. However, even in East Germany, childcare and upbringing tasks outside of working hours were largely in the hands of women.
The differences in wealth are even more noticeable. In 2022, the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) found that the poor half of households in the east had an average of 12,000 euros in assets, while comparable households in the west had 24,000 euros to fall back on. And the gap is also clear at the other end of the gap. The richest one percent in the east has an average of 3 million euros, while in the west the average for the comparable group of people is 12 million euros.
There are historical reasons for this. Social historian Kerstin Brückweh from the Federal Agency for Civic Education told Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk: “In the GDR, public property was officially highly valued, but private property was anything but insignificant. However, the regime’s guidelines and actions had an impact on the design of private property and resulted in measurable differences between East and West Germany that continue to this day.”