According to a study by the union-affiliated Hans Böckler Foundation, companies with a collective agreement offer significantly better working conditions than comparable companies without a collective agreement.
According to the Institute for Economic and Social Sciences (WSI) of the foundation in Düsseldorf, full-time employees in non-tariff companies work an average of 54 minutes longer each week. Nevertheless, they earned eleven percent less than employees in comparable companies covered by collective agreements. “In times of sharply rising living costs, employees in companies that are bound by collective bargaining agreements therefore tend to have a small financial cushion,” the authors of the study state.
The significant decline in collective bargaining coverage since the turn of the millennium has negative consequences for employees and the purchasing power of broad sections of the population, it said. While in 2000 more than two thirds of the employees (68 percent) in Germany were employed in companies bound by collective bargaining agreements, this proportion was only a good half (52 percent) in 2021. The authors found a west-east divide. The proportion of collective bargaining jobs in Bremen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse was recently between 59 and 55 percent. “Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia, on the other hand, only account for 41 to 46 percent of jobs covered by collective agreements.”
Significant wage differences
In terms of wages, the gap between non-tariff companies is particularly pronounced in eastern Germany. Employees in companies without a collective agreement in Brandenburg earned around 15 percent less than those in comparable companies with a collective agreement. In Saxony-Anhalt, the deficit is 14 percent. “In order to get a full annual salary for their colleagues with a collective agreement, employees in companies without a collective agreement have to work here until March of the following year.”
When it comes to working hours, on the other hand, the differences in West Germany are particularly striking. The difference is greatest in Baden-Württemberg, where full-time employees in non-tariff companies regularly work an additional hour and a half (87 minutes) per week. In Bremen it is 61 minutes and in Saarland 60 minutes. “Over the year, that’s more than an extra work week.”
