Members of the CDU parliamentary faction are calling for changes to the reform plans proposed by Federal Health Minister Nina Warken. In a statement reported by POLITICO, Stefan Nacke, the head of the CDU faction’s employee group, emphasized that if high incomes are subject to increased contributions, special employment regimes, such as the Minijob (mini-job), cannot simply be indefinitely maintained. This concern is particularly relevant when considering the planned reorganization of family insurance.
While Nacke acknowledges that the Minister’s draft prudently allows for exceptions in family insurance to accommodate various “real-life situations”-such as those involving small children, caregiving responsibilities, disabilities, or retirement age-he issued a strong warning. He cautioned that current structures are pushing permanent employment outside of the “normal social insurance” framework through mini-jobs. According to Nacke, this trend weakens social solidarity, distorts competition, and effectively postpones comprehensive social security.
Maintaining contribution stability, he argued, requires strengthening the core contribution base. Therefore, the goal should be for permanent employment to gradually exit the “special zone” of the mini-job and reintegrate into standard, mandatory social insurance employment.
Nacke urged policymakers to clarify whether securing contribution stability should only be addressed on an organizational level or if it requires structural reforms. While labeling the draft as providing a good initial answer, the CDU politician advocated for a more courageous approach: treating mini-jobs not merely as a practical sideline necessity, but as a major, structural policy problem that requires comprehensive overhauling.