IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/kue/dpaper/e-14-015.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

General statutory minimum wage debate in Germany: Degrees of political intervention in collective bargaining autonomy

Author

Listed:
  • Kota Kitagawa
  • Arata Uemura

Abstract

This article traces the pattern of conflict, collaboration, and compromise among trade unions, employers, political parties, executive branches, and economic research institutes in Germany, all of which have different stances regarding the introduction of a general statutory minimum wage there. This article examines the degree of political intervention in collective bargaining autonomy. First, it identifies the factors that bring about differences in stance. Second, it addresses the issue of actor independence—in particular, that of service trade unions—despite the placing of institutional factors, to establish a reference standard for the debate behind forming social movement alliances. Third, it examines the manner in which the policy’s economic legitimacy is earned. We conclude that the emergence of a statutory minimum wage in Germany reflects the dynamic mix of postwar political practices in its own context with the effects of modern neoliberal economic policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Kota Kitagawa & Arata Uemura, 2015. "General statutory minimum wage debate in Germany: Degrees of political intervention in collective bargaining autonomy," Discussion papers e-14-015, Graduate School of Economics Project Center, Kyoto University.
  • Handle: RePEc:kue:dpaper:e-14-015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.kyoto-u.ac.jp/projectcenter/Paper/e-14-015.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Karl Brenke & Kai-Uwe Müller, 2013. "Gesetzlicher Mindestlohn: kein verteilungspolitisches Allheilmittel," DIW Wochenbericht, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 80(39), pages 3-17.
    2. Schuster, Thomas, 2013. "Mindestlohn: Beschäftigungsrisiken höher als behauptet," IW policy papers 19/2013, Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft (IW) / German Economic Institute.
    3. Bispinck, Reinhard & Dribbusch, Heiner & Schulten, Thorsten, 2010. "German collective bargaining in a European perspective: Continuous erosion or re-stabilisation of multi-employer agreements?," WSI Working Papers 171, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    4. Dolton, Peter, 2012. "The administration and impact of a national minimum wage : lessons for Germany," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 45(3/4), pages 201-208.
    5. Paloyo Alfredo R. & Schaffner Sandra & Schmidt Christoph M., 2013. "Special Issue on the Economic Effects of Minimum Wages in Germany: Editorial," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 14(3), pages 255-257, August.
    6. Klaus Doerre & Hajo Holst & Oliver Nachtwey, 2009. "Organizing – A Strategic Option for Trade Union Renewal?," International Journal of Action Research, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 5(1), pages 33-67.
    7. Dolton, Peter, 2012. "The administration and impact of a national minimum wage : lessons for Germany," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 45(3/4), pages 201-208.
    8. Peter Dolton, 2012. "The administration and impact of a national minimum wage: lessons for Germany," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 45(3), pages 201-208, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arni, Patrick & Eichhorst, Werner & Pestel, Nico & Spermann, Alexander & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2014. "Kein Mindestlohn ohne unabhängige wissenschaftliche Evaluation," IZA Standpunkte 65, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Heise, Arne, 2018. "Reconciling Facts with Fiction, or: A Theoretical Speculation of why the Minimum Wage has no Discernible Effect on Employment," MPRA Paper 92483, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Arne Heise & Toralf Pusch, 2020. "Introducing minimum wages in Germany employment effects in a post Keynesian perspective," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(5), pages 1515-1532, November.
    4. Marco Caliendo & Carsten Schröder & Linda Wittbrodt, 2019. "The Causal Effects of the Minimum Wage Introduction in Germany – An Overview," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 20(3), pages 257-292, August.
    5. Bofinger, Peter & Buch, Claudia M. & Feld, Lars P. & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Wieland, Volker, 2013. "Gegen eine rückwärtsgewandte Wirtschaftspolitik. Jahresgutachten 2013/14 [Against a backward-looking economic policy. Annual Report 2013/14]," Annual Economic Reports / Jahresgutachten, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, volume 127, number 201314.
    6. Amlinger, Marc & Bispinck, Reinhard & Schulten, Thorsten, 2014. "Niedriglohnsektor: Jeder Dritte ohne Mindestlohn? Ausnahmen vom geplanten Mindestlohn und ihre Konsequenzen," WSI Reports 12, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    7. Joachim Möller & Karl Brenke & Gert Wagner & Thorsten Schulten & Gustav Horn & Hagen Lesch & Alexander Mayer & Lisa Schmid & Patrick Arni & Werner Eichhorst & Alexander Spermann & Klaus Zimmermann, 2014. "Das Mindestlohngesetz — Hoffnungen und Befürchtungen," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 94(6), pages 387-406, June.
    8. Krzywdzinski, Martin & Pfeiffer, Sabine & Evers, Maren & Gerber, Christine, 2022. "Measuring work and workers: Wearables and digital assistance systems in manufacturing and logistics," Discussion Papers, Research Group Globalization, Work, and Production SP III 2022-301, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    9. John Addison & Paulino Teixeira & Katalin Evers & Lutz Bellmann, 2014. "Indicative and Updated Estimates of the Collective Bargaining Premium in Germany," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 125-156, January.
    10. repec:ces:ifofor:v:19:y:2018:i:2:p:44-54 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Dütsch Matthias & Himmelreicher Ralf & Ohlert Clemens, 2019. "Calculating Gross Hourly Wages – the (Structure of) Earnings Survey and the German Socio-Economic Panel in Comparison," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 239(2), pages 243-276, April.
    12. Torben Krings, 2021. "‘Good’ Bad Jobs? The Evolution of Migrant Low-Wage Employment in Germany (1985–2015)," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(3), pages 527-544, June.
    13. Dossche, Maarten & Lewis, Vivien & Poilly, Céline, 2019. "Employment, hours and the welfare effects of intra-firm bargaining," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 67-84.
    14. Pierre Cahuc & Stéphane Carcillo & Ulf Rinne & Klaus Zimmermann, 2013. "Youth unemployment in old Europe: the polar cases of France and Germany," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-23, December.
    15. John Addison & Paulino Teixeira & Jens Stephani & Lutz Bellmann, 2012. "Can German Unions Still Cut It?," GEMF Working Papers 2012-19, GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra.
    16. Alexander Guschanski & Özlem Onaran, 2018. "Determinants of the Wage Share: A Cross-country Comparison Using Sectoral Data," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 19(02), pages 44-54, July.
    17. repec:zbw:rwipos:058 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Weigert, Benjamin & Klemm, Marcus, 2015. "Composition matters! Wage inequality and the demographic and educational structure of the labor force in Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112914, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    19. Tangian, Andranik S., 2015. "Is the left-right alignment of parties outdated?," WSI Working Papers 198, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    20. Mia Mahmudur RAHIM & Sk Samidul ISLAM, 2020. "Freedom of association in the Bangladeshi garment industry: A policy schizophrenia in labour regulation," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 159(3), pages 423-446, September.
    21. Walwei, Ulrich, 2015. "From deregulation to re-regulation : trend reversal in German labour market institutions and its possible implications," IAB-Discussion Paper 201510, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    22. Becker, Irene & Schüssler, Reinhard, 2014. "Das Grundsicherungsniveau: Ergebnis der Verteilungsentwicklung und normativer Setzungen. Eine empirische Analyse auf Basis der EVS 2003 und 2008," Arbeitspapiere 298, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Minimum Wage; Collective Bargaining Autonomy; Germany; Coalition Agreement; Social Movement Unionism; Varieties of Capitalism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies
    • J58 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Public Policy
    • K31 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Labor Law

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kue:dpaper:e-14-015. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Graduate School of Economics Project Center (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fekyojp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.