Just a few months after the minimum wage was last raised in Germany, the country’s Sozialverband organisation is demanding the hourly rate be increased to 14 euros as soon as possible.

Calls for minimum wage increase in Germany

Germany’s Sozialverband, a political advocacy organisation established after WWII, is calling on Olaf Scholz’s government to increase the minimum wage to 14,13 euros per hour.

It has now been six months since the coalition government raised the minimum hourly wage to 12 euros. Still, the Sozialverband is demanding that inflation and rising living costs mean that the recent increase is already insufficient for people to support themselves.

Speaking to Berliner Morgenpost, Sozialverband representative Michaela Engelmeier said, “After a year of war, its omnipresent consequences and the three-quarters of the year that still lie ahead of us, it is our opinion that inflation has to be more sufficiently offset. Therefore, according to our calculations, the minimum wage must be increased to 14,13 euros.”

When Scholz’s government floated the 12-euro minimum wage, Engelmeier and the Sozialverband were already critical. Back then the organisation said that 12 euros was too meagre and called for a minimum, “poverty proofing” 13 euros per hour. Now, with costs rising for energy and food, Engelmeier and co are doubling down on their wage increase demands.

Minimum wage will increase in 2024

The current minimum wage, which went up from 10,25 to 12 euros per hour in October 2022, is set to last until 2024.

Every two years, associations like the Sozialverband make an assessment of Germany’s wage laws and propose changes. The deadline for associations to submit their independent reviews falls on Friday, March 10, 2023, after which the next proposal period will be in summer.

As it stands, the German government assess minimum wage figures every two years. As part of its campaign, however, the Sozialverband are calling for this window to be reduced to one year due to "ever-rising inflation.”

Speaking to Berliner Morgenpost Engelmeier added that the government should also do more to make sure that employers are actually paying minimum wage. “Too many workers are still not receiving minimum wage even though they are entitled to it,” Engelmeier stressed.

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