Over the last ten years, Germany has been the country that has displayed the greatest degree of restraint in collective bargaining. Few other OECD countries have had such a modest increase in unit labour costs and few have lived below their means to the same extent in terms of wage policy. While...

Die politische Auseinandersetzung um die Begrenzung des Niedriglohnsektors in Deutschland ist nach wie vor in vollem Gang. Zwar gewinnt die Forderung nach einem einheitlichen gesetzlichen Mindestlohn immer mehr an Unterstützung, aber durchgesetzt ist sie noch keineswegs. Der vorliegende...

In Germany the 2000s proved to be a decade of moderate increases in collectively-agreed minimum pay. Agreed pay in real terms rose by 6.7% over the whole period. However, by 2010 real actual earnings had fallen by 4% over the decade and were down to 96% of their 2000 level. As a consequence, the...