Minimum wage in care for the elderly: How can the financing work?

Nursing staff from abroad are also entitled to the minimum wage. But mostly they work well below that. Minister of Labor Heil and Minister of Health Spahn see a need for action – their proposals for financing differ massively.

Groundbreaking and correct – this is how Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil assesses the judgment of the Federal Labor Court. The SPD politician told the broadcasters ntv and RTL that work has a dignity. It doesn’t matter whether someone comes from Bucharest or Bottrop. Those who work deserve a decent wage. The judgment also makes it clear: standby times must also be rewarded.

The minister emphasized that at the same time people in need of care at home and their families who are dependent on help should be better supported. For Heil, this means a strengthening of long-term care insurance.

“There has now been a nursing reform, that’s my colleague Spahn’s responsibility. But that’s obviously not enough for home nursing,” he criticized in the direction of the Ministry of Health. Germany must therefore consistently take the path of care citizens’ insurance in order to be able to better cover and support people in need of care who live in the household.

“Take note of the request”

Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn also sees a need for action. The CDU politician rejected the charge that his ministry was on the brakes. Instead, he emphasized that we could work together on a solution.

“Until now it has always been said that there is no need for regulation from the Ministry of Labor for 24-hour workers and I think there is, the issue is too urgent for that,” said Spahn. On the one hand, this applies to the families, but also to the employees, who of course should not only know their rights, but should also be able to implement them.

It is an urgent issue that, in Spahn’s opinion, the new federal government must address quickly. A care citizen insurance, as requested by Minister of Labor Heil, sees Spahn critically. He took note of the request, he said.

One billion euros in grant

“But it does not help the nursing staff from abroad if we introduce citizens’ insurance or universal insurance in Germany. What it is about is re-financing,” said the minister.

He himself had submitted proposals for a corresponding regulation as part of the care reform. The Federal Council approved the reform in the morning. Nursing staff in nursing homes should therefore be paid better in the future. At the same time, home residents should not be burdened financially.

In order to finance it, it is planned, among other things, that the federal government pays a subsidy of one billion euros per year into long-term care insurance. Minister Spahn called the reform a milestone. The judgment on the foreign nursing staff in home care must now be evaluated. A ready-to-implement solution concept could be presented to the next government quickly.

“Do not tolerate precarious working conditions”

Experts estimate that up to 600,000 foreign workers are active in caring for the home, mostly women from Eastern and Central European EU countries and the Ukraine. You earn between 1500 and 1700 euros. Most of them are employed by an agency in their country.

According to the judgment of the Federal Labor Court, they are entitled to the statutory minimum wage. The federal government’s authorized care representative, Westerfellhaus, told the newspapers of the Funke Medien Gruppe that 24-hour care should become a mega-topic in politics. The aim must be neither to destroy functioning care settings nor to tolerate precarious working conditions.