Chancellor Olaf Scholz has spoken out in favor of a gradual increase in the minimum wage to 15 euros. “I am clearly in favor of raising the minimum wage first to 14 euros, then in the next step to 15 euros,” Scholz told “Stern”. At the same time, he criticized the Minimum Wage Commission. “The employers only insisted on a mini-adjustment.” In addition, they had broken with the tradition of making decisions by consensus, said the SPD politician. It is currently planned to increase the minimum wage next year from the current 12.41 euros to 12.82 euros.
The demand for a minimum wage of 15 euros had previously also come from the ranks of the Greens, the Left and the Verdi union. So that everyone can get by on their income, a statutory minimum wage of 14 euros this year and 15 euros next year is required, said Green Party politician Katrin Göring-Eckardt recently. There was also criticism from the SPD that the planned increase was too low.
The minimum wage is set by a responsible commission in which the social partners are represented. In 2022, the government raised it by law to 12 euros in a first-of-its-kind step – a key election promise from Scholz before the last federal election.
Scholz: “Biggest salary improvement in years”
“We have thus created the biggest salary improvement in years for employees in the low-wage sector,” Scholz continued to tell “Stern”. All warnings about job losses have proven to be unfounded.
Employer President Rainer Dulger had already accused the SPD in December of preparing the next breach of word on the minimum wage. After increasing the legal minimum wage to 12 euros, Scholz promised that this was a one-off campaign. The SPD is already preparing the next intervention in the autonomy of the commission. The FDP parliamentary group also recently spoke out against political interference in the independence of the Minimum Wage Commission.