In the decade from April 2014 to April 2024, the number of low-wage jobs in Germany has decreased by 1.3 million. According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Thursday, there were approximately 6.3 million employment relationships in April 2024, with nearly one in six jobs (16 percent) earning a gross hourly wage below the low-wage threshold of 13.79 euros. In April 2014, before the introduction of the statutory minimum wage of 8.50 euros per hour on January 1, 2015, more than one in five jobs (21 percent or around 7.6 million) was in the low-wage sector. The low-wage threshold at the time was 10.00 euros gross per hour. The low-wage sector includes all employment relationships (excluding apprentices), which are paid less than two-thirds of the median gross hourly wage.
Between April 2022 and April 2023, the share of jobs below the low-wage threshold among all employment relationships decreased by three percentage points from 19 percent to 16 percent, the strongest decline in the low-wage rate within the past decade. In this time period from April 2022 to April 2023, the statutory minimum wage increased from 9.82 euros to 12.00 euros.
The share of low-paid jobs among all employment relationships roughly halved in the eastern federal states over the ten-year period, decreasing by 17 percentage points from 35 percent to 18 percent. In the western states, the share decreased by only three percentage points from 19 percent to 16 percent.
Not only has the share of low-wage jobs decreased in the decade from 2014 to 2024, but also the wage gap between low- and high-earners: High-earners (upper ten percent of the wage scale) in April 2024 received 3.00 times the gross hourly wage of low-earners (lower ten percent of the wage scale), whereas in April 2014, it was still 3.48 times. A person in April 2024 earned up to 13.00 euros gross per hour as a low-earner and above 39.05 euros gross per hour as a high-earner.
Despite this, the wage gap in April 2024 was still much larger in the west than in the east: High-earners in the western federal states received 3.08 times the gross hourly wage of low-earners, while high-earners in the eastern federal states received 2.50 times the wage of low-earners. In April 2014, the wage gap in the west was 3.47 and in the east 3.31, according to the statisticians.