A government-appointed commission announced that Germany would raise its minimum wage twice over the next two years. The move would give Germans the second-highest minimum wage in the EU, after Luxembourg.
A government-appointed commission announced that Germany would raise its minimum wage twice over the next two years. The move would give Germans the second-highest minimum wage in the EU, after Luxembourg.
Great. We used the same definition, that’s good.
Now, can you explain to me what minimum wage do you think would make it so minimum wage is safe from poverty according to that definition?
According to the Federal Bureau of Statistics the median income in 2024 in Germany was € 52,159 . 60% of this value is € 31,295.4. A worker with a 40 hour work week and the mandates 28 days of paid vacation days worked 1784 hours in 2024. Therefore by dividing 60% of the median income per year with hours worked per year we get the targeted hourly pay: € 17.55/h.
I am not sure why this seems to be an impossible task for you.
Yeah. It is clearly possible. I don’t know why I read it as 60th percentile instead of 60% of median
I don’t understand why you claim it would be impossible to reach the definition?
A simple constructed example: if the median income is € 20 by hour. A minimum wage of, say, € 15 would be considered safe. Why is that impossible?
A quick Google search shows me Destatis.de claims the median wage in April 2023 was € 24.59. Then 60% of that would be € 14.75. I would assume the median has increased a bit from 2023, and will increase further towards 2027, but I would from these numbers expect € 16 to for example be high enough to be considered safe from poverty, which isn’t that much higher than the proposed number.
The neat thing about using the median instead of the mean is that increasing the minimum wage only affects those earning the least, and thus doesn’t directly affect the median.
He probably was thinking of the mean instead of the median. Just a typical brain fart.