In view of the high inflation, however, the latest agreements mean real wage losses for employees.
You cant say it like that. The latest price increases refer only to the period since the beginning of Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine. Until then, the price increase had always been well below two percent for ten years, often even below one percent. During all this time, employees have experienced significant increases in real wages.
But not since 2019.
I find it a bit unfair to look for the loss of real wages for so long and to shorten the period of time until you finally find it. In the previous ten years there had been significant increases in real wages.
You call on the state when it comes to collective bargaining and industrial electricity prices, and you call on the unions to show moderation. At the same time, the Dax companies made profits of around 120 billion euros last year, the second highest in German economic history.
This is a misleading image. Many companies increased their prices in the crisis year 2022 because they could no longer keep up with their costs. Digitization, decarbonization and demographic change had been a burden on companies for a long time, then Corona caused the supply chains to break down. And then came the Ukraine crisis. The profits in 2022 are a one-time effect, and we also need these high profits to survive the next few years, to prepare ourselves for the future and to be able to make investments. I would like to promote this: Profits also secure the future of the employees.
Did you actually pay the 3000 euro inflation premium in your company?
Yes, fully and for all employees. I only saw happy faces at the Christmas party.
The CDU is working on a concept for a tax reform and also wants to reform inheritance tax. Because the current regulation is too complicated and too susceptible to tax planning, there should be a flat tax: ten percent inheritance tax for everyone, i.e. for private individuals as well as for companies and their business assets. A good idea?
So much capital is often tied up in companies that they would not be able to raise enough money to pay the inheritance tax in the event of an inheritance. The CDU proposal now provides for a deferral model that allows companies to pay off inheritance tax for ten years. The deferral, so that no one has to sell their business or is no longer able to invest for ten years, is worth discussing, if we can also talk about the valuation of business assets. The fact that we currently don’t have a sensible deferral model for larger operating companies for inheritance tax is totally crazy. There is no inheritance tax for large public companies – this distorts competition.