Employees now pay a larger share of social security contributions than in the past, while the relative burden on employers has fallen.
A special analysis by the Federal Statistical Office, commissioned by the office of Left Party group leader Heidi Reichinnek, shows for each year since 1991 the total amount of all wage payments and, separately, the social contributions of employers and employees. The statistics include not only the traditional social insurance premiums but also things such as paid sick leave and company pension obligations.
From 1999 to 2024 the employers’ share of social contributions relative to total wages dropped by 1.5 percentage points-from 19.2 % to 17.7 %. In the same period the employees’ share rose by 1.5 percentage points-from 12.3 % in 1999 to 13.8 % in 2024.
On this basis Reichinnek sharply criticises the Union. In the debate over social cuts she accuses the CDU and CSU of presenting a misleading picture. She calls the “continual grumbling about an allegedly too high contribution burden” a pure farce, lacking any foundation, and dismisses the employers’ complaints as a “brazen attempt to cut labour costs in order to protect their profits”.