Status: 01.01.2022 1:23 p.m.
Many full-time employees have to expect low pensions in old age. At the current pension level, every third employee ends up with a gross pension of less than 1,300 euros. The Left Party calls for a higher pension level.
Every third employee in Germany is currently threatened with a gross pension of less than 1,300 euros per month after 45 full-time professional years. This emerges from a response from the Federal Ministry of Labor to a request from the left in the Bundestag, which the newspapers of the Funke media group first reported on.
According to the information, as of December 30, 2020, around 21.45 million people in Germany were registered in full-time employment subject to social security contributions. Around seven million of these have to calculate with a pension of less than 1,300 euros. After deducting health and long-term care insurance, this means a net pension of around 1160 euros.
3200 wages for 1500 euros pension
At the current pension level, employees must earn at least 2800 euros in the month before deductions in order to get a statutory pension of 1300 euros gross.
If you want to get a pension of EUR 1,500 in old age, you have to earn at least EUR 3,200 gross full-time per month, according to the current status. In order to receive 2500 euros gross from the pension insurance, a monthly wage of 5350 euros before taxes and duties is currently required.
Bartsch calls for a higher pension level
“It undermines trust in the statutory pension insurance if only a few hundred euros remain above Hartz IV level after a full working life,” said the parliamentary group leader of the Left in the Bundestag, Dietmar Bartsch, to the newspapers.
The figures of the federal government showed that “many employees not only earn too little, but also receive too little pension for their lifetime achievement”. Bartsch demands that the pension level must rise to at least over 50 percent. According to the pension insurance report in 2021, it was last at 49.4 percent.
Federal government: Limited informative value
In its response to the question, however, the Federal Ministry of Labor pointed out that the analysis of the figures did not allow any direct statements to be made about the level of earnings over the course of an entire working life. There could be wage increases in the future that could not yet be taken into account for the current surveys.
The government also emphasized that no conclusions can be drawn about the standard of living in old age from acquired pension entitlements, since further old-age income outside of the statutory pension insurance would have to be taken into account.