The economic crises of recent years have hit Germans even harder than feared. The economic downturn caused by the pandemic and, above all, the current wave of inflation are causing severe losses for employees. In September, negotiated wages in real terms, i.e. minus inflation, were four percent lower than at the beginning of 2015. This means that millions of employees earn less than they did almost a decade ago – a rare drop in prosperity. Those who receive the minimum wage were only protected from this by the politically controversial increase by the traffic light government.
Inflation in Germany harms employees more than expected – economy
