Hier zie, de gevolgen van uw wirschaftswunder
Citaat:
Insight: The dark side of Germany's jobs miracle
Anja has been scrubbing floors and washing dishes for two euros an hour over the past six years. She is bewildered when she sees newspapers hailing Germany's "job miracle."
"My company exploited me," says the 50-year-old, sitting in the kitchen of her small flat in the eastern German town of Stralsund. "If I could find something else, I'd be long gone."
Stralsund is an attractive seaside town but Anja, who preferred not to use her full name for fear of being fired, cannot afford the quaint cafes.
Wage restraint and labor market reforms have pushed the jobless rate down to a 20-year low, and the German model is often cited as an example for European nations seeking to cut unemployment and become more competitive.
But critics say the reforms that helped create jobs also broadened and entrenched the low-paid and temporary work sector, boosting wage inequality.
Labor office data show the low wage sector grew three times as fast as other employment in the five years to 2010, explaining why the "job miracle" has not prompted Germans to spend much more than they have in the past.
Pay in Germany, which has no nationwide minimum wage, can go well below one euro an hour, especially in the former communist east German states.
"I've had some people earning as little as 55 cents per hour," said Peter Huefken, the head of Stralsund's job agency, the first of its kind to sue employers for paying too little. He is encouraging other agencies to follow suit.
Data from the European Statistics Office suggests people in work in Germany are slightly less prone to poverty than their peers in the euro zone, but the risk has risen: 7.2 percent of workers were earning so little they were likely to experience poverty in 2010, versus 4.8 percent in 2005.
It is still lower than the euro zone average of 8.2 percent. But the number of so-called "working poor" has grown faster in Germany than in the currency bloc as a whole.
In response, as other European countries rush to deregulate, Germany is re-regulating.
Angela Merkel's conservative government is trying to water down the effects of some labor reforms brought in by her Social Democrat (SPD) predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, a year-and-a-half before the next federal election, when she is expected to seek a third term.
PRECOCIOUS REFORMER
The contrast between Germany's record levels of employment and the dire jobs situation elsewhere in Europe is stark.
Last year, the number of people in employment in Germany rose above the 41 million mark for the first time. The jobless rate has been falling steadily since 2005 and now stands at just 6.7 percent, compared to 23 percent in Spain and 18 percent in Greece.
It has been a tough battle since German unemployment peaked after reunification in 1990. Many east German businesses floundered in a free market once the Berlin Wall fell, sending joblessness there soaring over 20 percent.
Globalization put Germany's export-reliant economy under competitive pressure, forcing it to adjust quickly.
By 2003, Germany was embarking on reforms hailed as the biggest change to the social welfare system since World War Two, even as many of its peers were moving in the opposite direction.
While the French Socialists were introducing the 35-hour week and cranking up minimum wages, Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) were deregulating the labor market and raising pressure on the jobless to find work.
Unions and employers agreed wage restraint in return for job security and growth. Flexible working practices and government-subsidized reduced working hours enabled employers to adjust to the economic cycle without hiring and firing.
|
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ge...8170P120120208
http://www.dw.com/en/millions-of-ger...rty/a-18212765
http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-898693.html
Citaat:
In February, the Berlin-based Paritätische Gesamtverband, a leading welfare association, reported that poverty is at its highest level in Germany since reunification 25 years ago. Some 12.5 million of Germany’s 80 million are now classified as poor; they earn less than 60 percent of the median household income (for a single household, about 900 euros a month).
Seniors and single parents are the most likely to slip through the cracks. But an especially troubling trend, say the study’s authors, is the growth in the number of working poor. According to the Federal Statistical Office, a little over 3 million German workers now fall below the poverty line.According to the Federal Statistical Office, a little over 3 million German workers now fall below the poverty line. The Paritätische says the increase stems from years of chipping away at important labor protections.
“More and more people have a job, but ever fewer can actually live from it,” said Christian Woltering, who co-authored the study. “We believe there’s a significant correlation to a development we call the Americanization of the labor market.”
The roots of that trend go back more than a decade. If asked why their country has withstood the economic crisis that has plagued much of Europe, most Germans will point to Agenda 2010, a package of reforms former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder enacted in 2003 to tackle stubbornly high unemployment and jump-start the economy.
The temporary work sector has boomed. Germany’s Federal Employment Agency says the number of temporary jobs has doubled over the past 10 years. The agency notes that half of the temporary work contracts end after less than three months, and the wages earned are well below what full-time employees earn in the same companies. Mini-jobs, meanwhile, have turned into multi-jobs. Workers often string together various part-time positions to make ends meet. Labor statistics show the number of workers who registered a mini-job as an extra source of income exploded by 120 percent between 2003 and 2012.
“The majority of part-time workers, especially mini-job holders, would like to work more and earn more; that indicates a hidden underemployment,” said DIW, a leading economic think tank in Berlin, in a 2012 study. The result is a growing underclass of German workers increasingly trapped in a low-wage cycle with very little chance to advance.
|
|
