Germany’s lower house of parliament approved an increase in the minimum wage to 12 euros ($12.89) an hour from Oct. 1, which Labor Minister Hubertus Heil said will benefit more than six million people working in Europe’s largest economy.
The legislation, which will get final approval from the upper house of parliament next Friday, will mostly benefit women and people in the former communist eastern states, Heil said in a tweet. It will also help low-income workers cope with surging costs for food and heating, which have helped push Germany’s inflation rate to a record.
Germany has had a base hourly salary since 2015, having previously been one of the few European countries not to introduce one. The minimum wage is currently 9.82 euros an hour and is due to rise to 10.45 euros from July 1.
The nation’s system of collective bargaining meant that for many years labor unions saw little need for a legal minimum wage, but the increase in low-paid jobs starting in the 1990s prompted a change in policy.
Germany’s ruling coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats agreed on the measure in their blueprint for government.
Martin Rosemann, a spokesman on labor policy for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD, said the minimum wage will help close the gender pay gap and "protect people on low incomes from poverty in old age.”
"Especially for the many employees in sectors with little collective bargaining coverage, such as gastronomy, cleaning and retail, the increase in the minimum wage is also a sign of the respect society has for these systemically important professions,” Rosemann said in an emailed statement
