Minimum wage country profile for Germany 123
Information for this page was compiled during December 2024 and January 2025. Most Member States had already transposed the EU minimum wage directive at this point, while others were still working towards it. Those that had not yet fully completed transposition or where the information was not yet publicly available include Bulgaria, Cyprus, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Spain. These profiles will be updated consecutively as the information becomes available. Users are invited to contact Eurofound if they are aware of changes.
The German statutory minimum wage is regulated by the 2015 ‘Act Regulating a General Minimum Wage’ (Minimum Wage Act). Before 2015, there was no generally applicable statutory minimum wage in Germany. The specific level of the statutory minimum wage is set by a Minimum Wage Adjustment Ordinance of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) every two years upon a proposal made by the Minimum Wage Commission.
In addition to the statutory minimum wage, minimum wage standards or other provisions of collective agreements in sectors and branches can be declared generally binding by means of a ministerial ordinance in accordance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement Act, the Posting of Workers Act or the Temporary Employment Act. In these cases, employers who are otherwise not bound by the collective agreement fall into the scope of the respective collective agreement.
The statutory minimum wage is set by a ministerial ordinance upon the proposal of the Minimum Wage Commission every two years. According to the Minimum Wage Act (section 4(2)), the Minimum Wage Commission is newly appointed every five years. It consists of a chairperson and three members of each side of the social partners. The social partner representatives and the chair have voting rights. Two additional advisory members from the scientific community do not have a voting right in decisions of the commission. They are proposed by the social partners but must be independent of the social partners’ organisations (for example, they shall not be employed by research institutes funded by a social partner organisation). The Federal Government appoints the chairperson upon the joint proposal of the umbrella organisations of the employer organisations and trade unions. The Minimum Wage Commission is supported by a secretariat with currently eight staff members. The secretariat is situated at the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAUA) as an independent organisational unit funded by the federal state (budget for 2024 around €1.36 million). It supports the commission with, among others, the scientific evaluation of the minimum wage and gives information and advice for employees and companies.
According to the Minimum Wage Act (Section 9), every two years in June, the Minimum Wage Commission passes a resolution with a proposal for the level of the minimum wage for the next two years, starting in January of the following year. Section 10 prescribes that the commission decides by a simple majority of the votes of the members who are present. The chairperson first abstains from voting. If the resolution does not have the majority, the chairperson makes a compromise proposal. Only if, following the deliberations on the compromise proposal, there is still no majority vote, the chairperson casts a vote. The Minimum Wage Commission can organise hearings with the umbrella organisations of the employer organisations and trade unions, sectoral employers’ organisations and trade unions, church-based organisations under public law, charitable associations, associations representing economic and social interests, and others affected by the minimum wage. It also makes use of information and expert opinions from external bodies. Section 9 further stipulates that the Commission must provide written grounds for its decision and present a report alongside the resolution with an evaluation of the impact of the minimum wage on the protection of workers, competition, employment regarding certain branches of industry and regions, as well as productivity.
According to section 11, when the Minimum Wage Commission has passed its resolution, the government drafts a legal ordinance for the setting of the minimum wage. After the draft ordinance has been published social partner and civil society organisations receive the possibility to submit written opinions on the draft within three weeks. The government can then make the minimum wage adjustment proposed by the Minimum Wage Commission binding for all employers and employees by means of a legal ordinance without the consent of the Bundesrat (the second federal legislative chamber representing the German federal states (Bundesländer). The federal government can only implement the proposal made by the Minimum Wage Commission unchanged and cannot set a different amount. If the decision is not implemented, the current minimum wage level would remain.
