Latest news with #OlafScholz
Nahar Net
6 hours ago
- Business
- Nahar Net
German minimum wage set to rise by about 14% over the next 18 months
by Naharnet Newsdesk 4 hours Germany's minimum wage is set to rise by about 14% over the next 18 months under an agreement that appears to defuse a potentially divisive issue for the new government. A commission in which employers and labor unions are represented recommended on Friday that the minimum wage rise from its current 12.82 euros ($15) per hour to 13.90 euros at the beginning of 2026 and 14.60 euros a year later. The head of the panel, Christiane Schönefeld, said it faced "a particular challenge this year in view of the stagnating economy and the uncertain forecasts." She said it conducted "very difficult talks, which were complicated further by the expectations expressed in public." Germany, which has Europe's biggest economy, has had a national minimum wage since 2015. It was introduced at the insistence of the center-left Social Democrats, who were then — as they are now now — the junior partners in a conservative-led government. It started off at 8.50 euros per hour, but the independent commission reviews its level regularly. There has been one political intervention, however: under then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, the government in 2022 ordered an increase to 12 euros an hour, fulfilling a campaign pledge by Scholz. In their campaign for this year's election, the Social Democrats called for an increase to 15 euros. New Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative bloc strongly opposed another government-ordered raise. Labor Minister Bärbel Bas, a leading Social Democrat, said she would implement the commission's proposal. She said she "can live well with it." "Of course we wanted more for people in this country," she told reporters. But she praised the panel for reaching consensus on an increase, "because it looked for a long time as though we wouldn't get an agreement at all, and then of course we would have had to talk in the coalition about how to deal with this."
7 hours ago
- Business
German minimum wage set to rise by about 14% over the next 18 months
BERLIN -- Germany's minimum wage is set to rise by about 14% over the next 18 months under an agreement that appears to defuse a potentially divisive issue for the new government. A commission in which employers and labor unions are represented recommended on Friday that the minimum wage rise from its current 12.82 euros ($15) per hour to 13.90 euros at the beginning of 2026 and 14.60 euros a year later. The head of the panel, Christiane Schönefeld, said it faced 'a particular challenge this year in view of the stagnating economy and the uncertain forecasts.' She said it conducted 'very difficult talks, which were complicated further by the expectations expressed in public.' Germany, which has Europe's biggest economy, has had a national minimum wage since 2015. It was introduced at the insistence of the center-left Social Democrats, who were then — as they are now now — the junior partners in a conservative-led government. It started off at 8.50 euros per hour, but the independent commission reviews its level regularly. There has been one political intervention, however: under then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, the government in 2022 ordered an increase to 12 euros an hour, fulfilling a campaign pledge by Scholz. In their campaign for this year's election, the Social Democrats called for an increase to 15 euros. New Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative bloc strongly opposed another government-ordered raise. Labor Minister Bärbel Bas, a leading Social Democrat, said she would implement the commission's proposal. She said she 'can live well with it.' 'Of course we wanted more for people in this country,' she told reporters. But she praised the panel for reaching consensus on an increase, 'because it looked for a long time as though we wouldn't get an agreement at all, and then of course we would have had to talk in the coalition about how to deal with this.'
Nahar Net
8 hours ago
- Business
- Nahar Net
German minimum wage set to rise by about 14% over the next 18 months
by Naharnet Newsdesk 27 June 2025, 15:51 Germany's minimum wage is set to rise by about 14% over the next 18 months under an agreement that appears to defuse a potentially divisive issue for the new government. A commission in which employers and labor unions are represented recommended on Friday that the minimum wage rise from its current 12.82 euros ($15) per hour to 13.90 euros at the beginning of 2026 and 14.60 euros a year later. The head of the panel, Christiane Schönefeld, said it faced "a particular challenge this year in view of the stagnating economy and the uncertain forecasts." She said it conducted "very difficult talks, which were complicated further by the expectations expressed in public." Germany, which has Europe's biggest economy, has had a national minimum wage since 2015. It was introduced at the insistence of the center-left Social Democrats, who were then — as they are now now — the junior partners in a conservative-led government. It started off at 8.50 euros per hour, but the independent commission reviews its level regularly. There has been one political intervention, however: under then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, the government in 2022 ordered an increase to 12 euros an hour, fulfilling a campaign pledge by Scholz. In their campaign for this year's election, the Social Democrats called for an increase to 15 euros. New Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative bloc strongly opposed another government-ordered raise. Labor Minister Bärbel Bas, a leading Social Democrat, said she would implement the commission's proposal. She said she "can live well with it." "Of course we wanted more for people in this country," she told reporters. But she praised the panel for reaching consensus on an increase, "because it looked for a long time as though we wouldn't get an agreement at all, and then of course we would have had to talk in the coalition about how to deal with this."
France 24
9 hours ago
- Business
- France 24
'We want to open a new chapter in German-French relations': Germany's Europe minister
While relations with France under the previous German government of Olaf Scholz were sometimes strained, Krichbaum suggests that things are changing under the new chancellor, Friedrich Merz. "It's no secret that we had different opinions between France and Germany in the past," Krichbaum says. "But the decisive point is that we have to finally find a consensus and to have an atmosphere of trust. And this, I think, is now the new dimension of French-German relations. We are not only opening a new page. We want to open a new chapter in German-French relations. But I think the instruments we have are sufficient. We don't need more common debts in Europe because the national states have a responsibility for their own national budgets." Krichbaum certainly does not exclude more European investment, but he says that "we should always take into account that we have to guarantee fair conditions between the generations. So that means not making more debts, more debts, more debts, but also thinking about the next generation, because this [debt] has to be paid back one day." On NATO and European defence, Krichbaum asserts that "Europe has to stay together; it has to define its own interest. And especially in defence politics." The German government is planning to invest "3.5 percent of GDP directly for defence, and 1.5 percent for infrastructure, which helps to achieve the goals we have in common. This is ambitious, and it cannot be reached within the next year or in 2027. But finally it's a target, and it should be achieved together. Germany did not realise the 2 percent targets a few years ago, but I think the challenges are enormously high, and without security, we can do nothing in the world, nothing in Europe and nothing in Germany." Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Berlin not to supply Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, while also saying that he is open to talking to the German chancellor. Krichbaum says that he personally was "always in favour of delivering Taurus, because it's necessary that Ukraine can defend itself. The United States wants to withdraw more and more from Ukraine because they concentrate more on the future on the Pacific. On China, Taiwan and the whole area. And so we have to concentrate on our task. And that means [supporting] Ukraine as a European country." He clarifies that no decision on Taurus has been made by the German government so far, but adds that "in the past we were transparent and so Putin could react because he knew at each stage what Europe will do next, what Germany will do next. And this transparency is not helpful". Finally, asked about Berlin's steadfast support for Israel and the US in the conflict with Iran, Krichbaum asserts: "Nobody can live in peace thinking that the [Iranian] mullah regime has a nuclear weapon. So I would dare to say that if it was possible to destroy all the plants, the enrichment plants in Iran, then I think this is a contribution to more security, not only for the region, but for the world. And now it is also necessary to find further solutions in negotiations."
San Francisco Chronicle
11 hours ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
German minimum wage set to rise by about 14% over the next 18 months
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's minimum wage is set to rise by about 14% over the next 18 months under an agreement that appears to defuse a potentially divisive issue for the new government. A commission in which employers and labor unions are represented recommended on Friday that the minimum wage rise from its current 12.82 euros ($15) per hour to 13.90 euros at the beginning of 2026 and 14.60 euros a year later. The head of the panel, Christiane Schönefeld, said it faced 'a particular challenge this year in view of the stagnating economy and the uncertain forecasts.' She said it conducted 'very difficult talks, which were complicated further by the expectations expressed in public.' Germany, which has Europe's biggest economy, has had a national minimum wage since 2015. It was introduced at the insistence of the center-left Social Democrats, who were then — as they are now now — the junior partners in a conservative-led government. It started off at 8.50 euros per hour, but the independent commission reviews its level regularly. There has been one political intervention, however: under then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, the government in 2022 ordered an increase to 12 euros an hour, fulfilling a campaign pledge by Scholz. In their campaign for this year's election, the Social Democrats called for an increase to 15 euros. New Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative bloc strongly opposed another government-ordered raise. 'Of course we wanted more for people in this country,' she told reporters. But she praised the panel for reaching consensus on an increase, 'because it looked for a long time as though we wouldn't get an agreement at all, and then of course we would have had to talk in the coalition about how to deal with this.'
