The commercial cleaning industry is characterized by a high proportion of labour costs and a pronounced comparability and standardization of services. The statistical preconditions for the evaluation have not been ideal which is mainly due to the high proportion of part-time work and mini-jobs....

Since the mid-1990s, income inequality has increased more sharply in Germany than in many other European countries, as the economic basis of middle-class prosperity and security has crumbled. The new minimum wage, an increase in coverage by collective agreements, the re-regulation of atypical...

From the end of the Second World War onwards, a middle class emerged in Germany that was, by international standards, broadly based. The economic basis for this middle class was good pay and relatively low income differentiation, which was the result of collective agreement on a high coverage...

The extent of low-wage work in Germany is hotly debated. In international comparisons fromthe mid-90s, Germany is often classified as a country with a low wage dispersion. Comparedto the USA and UK, Germany has a relatively equal income structure and a small proportionof low-paid workers (OECD 1996;...