Bavaria: Study: Minimum wage increase affects 930,000 employees

Munich (dpa/lby) – According to a study, the increase in the minimum wage due on October 1 should be reflected on the payslips of a good 930,000 employees in Bavaria. According to calculations published on Tuesday by the Economic and Social Sciences Institute (WSI) of the Hans Böckler Foundation, which is close to the trade union, this is how many employees in the Free State still earn less than 12 euros per hour. However, there are large regional differences.

According to the study, the proportion in Bavaria is 14.7 percent. This is well below the national average of 17.8 percent. It is lower only in Baden-Württemberg with 14.0 percent. Hamburg is on par with Bavaria.

However, there are major regional differences in Bavaria – even between neighboring districts. According to the study, the highest values ??are found in Upper Franconia and Upper Bavaria, the lowest in Middle Franconia and also Upper Bavaria.

Specifically, there are the lowest minimum wage quotas in Erlangen with 8.1 and the district of Munich with 9.7 percent. They are also in second and third place nationwide behind Wolfsburg. In Bavaria, it is followed by Ingolstadt (10.7 percent), Weilheim-Schongau (10.8), Starnberg (10.9) and Munich City with 11.1 percent.

In contrast, there are 16 rural districts and urban districts with values ??of 20 percent or more. The highest rates in Bavaria are found in the Upper Franconian districts of Coburg at 23.8 percent, Wunsiedel at 23.1 percent and the independent city of Hof at 22.6 percent. Garmisch-Partenkirchen (22.4 percent) and Cham (21.9 percent) are followed by districts from Upper Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate. What is striking here is that Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Weilheim-Schongau, the districts with the fourth highest and fourth lowest value in the Free State, are directly adjacent to each other.

In a nationwide comparison, however, even the highest Bavarian quotas are comparatively low. According to the WSI, Sonneberg in Thuringia has the highest with 44 percent. The district of Coburg, as the Bavarian leader, is only in 77th place.