Collective bargaining agreements are of little importance in many sectors. In a European comparison, Germany is lagging behind overall in terms of collective bargaining coverage – and is missing the target of the European Parliament.
A little less than half of the employees in Germany work in a company that is bound by a collective agreement. The nationwide average was 49 percent last year, the Federal Statistical Office announced today for its new survey. However, there are enormous differences in the individual sectors.
High quotas in administration
The area of public administration, defense and social insurance has the highest rate with a collective bargaining coverage of 100 percent. It is followed by the sectors of energy supply, education and training as well as financial and insurance services.
On the other hand, there are low rates in hospitality, arts, entertainment and recreation, as well as in agriculture and forestry. In the trade sector, around 42 percent of all employees in the trades worked in a collective bargaining company last year.
| economic sector | Collective bargaining coverage 2022 in percent |
|---|---|
Agriculture and forestry, fisheries | 11 |
hospitality | 20 |
Arts, Entertainment and Recreation | 21 |
real estate and housing | 22 |
Professional, scientific and technical services | 25 |
information, communication | 26 |
Trading; Maintenance and repair of motor vehicles | 29 |
other services | 42 |
Transportation and storage | 44 |
construction industry | 46 |
Manufacturing Industry | 51 |
health and social care | 52 |
Other economic services | 59 |
Mining, quarrying and quarrying | 62 |
water supply; Disposal and removal of environmental pollution | 62 |
financial and insurance services | 75 |
education and teaching | 82 |
power supply | 85 |
Public Administration, Defence; social insurance | 100 |
Differences between East and West
“As far as collective agreements in these companies are concerned, there were clear differences between East and West Germany,” the statisticians explained. In the east of Germany, collective bargaining coverage is only 32 percent, while in the west it is 43 percent.
The federal states with the lowest collective bargaining agreements were Berlin and Saxony. Thuringia followed closely behind. Bremen and Saarland, on the other hand, had the highest collective bargaining coverage among the federal states at more than 50 percent.
A total of 58,000 companies of various sizes were asked whether a branch or company collective agreement applied to them. Companies that only apply collective agreements voluntarily are not classified as bound by collective agreements. However, their employees can receive salaries and working conditions that are similar to what is stipulated in collective agreements.
France and Italy with very high collective bargaining coverage
The Federal Statistical Office has so far only collected data on collective bargaining every four years. As of this year, the indicator will be determined annually on the basis of the results of the earnings survey, the authority said. Due to the methodological change, this year’s data can only be compared to a limited extent with the last data from 2018.
In 2018, Germany had a collective bargaining coverage of 48 percent. In a European comparison, it was just enough for 18th place in the European Union. Germany thus fell well short of the European Parliament’s target of 80 percent collective bargaining coverage.
France, Ireland, Italy and Slovenia, on the other hand, each achieved 100 percent collective bargaining coverage. Values are also high in Finland, Austria, Romania and Greece. In contrast, the lowest collective bargaining coverage was found for Estonia and Hungary, at just eight and 18 percent, respectively. More recent data from the European statistical authority were not available.