IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jns/jbstat/v245y2025i1-2p113-151n1003.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Minimum Wage in Germany: Institutional Setting and a Systematic Review of Key Findings

Author

Listed:
  • Dütsch Matthias

    (Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), Nöldnerstr. 40–42, 10317 Berlin, Germany)

  • Ohlert Clemens

    (Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), Nöldnerstr. 40–42, 10317 Berlin, Germany)

  • Baumann Arne

    (Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), Nöldnerstr. 40–42, 10317 Berlin, Germany)

Abstract

The introduction of a statutory minimum wage in Germany in 2015 aimed at improving the welfare of low-wage workers but was also accompanied by concerns about distortions in Europe’s largest economy. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of results from the evaluation of the German minimum wage by compiling recent descriptive evidence and a systematic literature review on causal effects through 2022. On 1 October 2022, the minimum wage was raised legislatively by 15 percent to 12 euros per hour, which affected approximately 5.8 million employees and 23 percent of companies. The war in Ukraine and the coronavirus pandemic hit minimum wage workers and minimum wage firms harder than the rest of the economy. The minimum wage thus far had the strongest causal effects directly after its introduction. Hourly wages increased, while working hours decreased, resulting in mixed effects on monthly wages. Overall employment fell slightly, with a decline in marginal employment in particular. Companies’ wage costs increased, and as productivity did not change, profits declined.

Suggested Citation

  • Dütsch Matthias & Ohlert Clemens & Baumann Arne, 2025. "The Minimum Wage in Germany: Institutional Setting and a Systematic Review of Key Findings," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 245(1-2), pages 113-151.
    • Handle: RePEc:jns:jbstat:v:245:y:2025:i:1-2:p:113-151:n:1003
    DOI: 10.1515/jbnst-2023-0038
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/jbnst-2023-0038
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/jbnst-2023-0038?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Card, David & Krueger, Alan B, 1994. "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 772-793, September.
    2. Patrick Arni & Werner Eichhorst & Nico Pestel & Alexander Spermann & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2014. "Der gesetzliche Mindestlohn in Deutschland: Einsichten und Handlungsempfehlungen aus der Evaluationsforschung," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 134(2), pages 149-182.
    3. Caliendo, Marco & Wittbrodt, Linda, 2022. "Did the minimum wage reduce the gender wage gap in Germany?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Peter Harasztosi & Attila Lindner, 2019. "Who Pays for the Minimum Wage?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(8), pages 2693-2727, August.
    5. David H. Autor & Alan Manning & Christopher L. Smith, 2016. "The Contribution of the Minimum Wage to US Wage Inequality over Three Decades: A Reassessment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 58-99, January.
    6. Riley, Rebecca & Rosazza Bondibene, Chiara, 2017. "Raising the standard: Minimum wages and firm productivity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 27-50.
    7. Mario Bossler & Hans-Dieter Gerner, 2020. "Employment Effects of the New German Minimum Wage: Evidence from Establishment-Level Microdata," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 73(5), pages 1070-1094, October.
    8. David S. Lee, 1999. "Wage Inequality in the United States During the 1980s: Rising Dispersion or Falling Minimum Wage?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(3), pages 977-1023.
    9. Christian Kagerl & Clemens Ohlert, 2021. "Mindestlohnbetriebe in der zweiten Corona-Welle [Minimum Wage Companies in the Second Wave of the Corona Crisis]," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 101(10), pages 804-808, October.
    10. Patrick Burauel & Marco Caliendo & Alexandra Fedorets & Markus M. Grabka & Carsten Schröder & Jürgen Schupp & Linda Wittbrodt, 2017. "Mindestlohn noch längst nicht für alle – Zur Entlohnung anspruchsberechtigter Erwerbstätiger vor und nach der Mindestlohnreform aus der Perspektive Beschäftigter," DIW Wochenbericht, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 84(49), pages 1109-1123.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arindrajit Dube & Attila S. Lindner, 2024. "Minimum Wages in the 21st Century," NBER Working Papers 32878, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Link, Sebastian, 2024. "The price and employment response of firms to the introduction of minimum wages," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    3. Koch, Andreas & Kirchmann, Andrea & Reiner, Marcel & Scheu, Tobias & Boockmann, Bernhard & Bonin, Holger, 2018. "Verhaltensmuster von Betrieben und Beschäftigten im Zuge der Einführung des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns," IZA Research Reports 84, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Zhao, Naibao & Sun, Meng, 2021. "Effects of minimum wage on workers’ on-the-job effort and labor market outcomes," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 453-461.
    5. Koch, Andreas & Kirchmann, Andrea & Reiner, Marcel & Scheu, Tobias & Zühlke, Anne & Bonin, Holger, 2020. "Verhaltensmuster von Betrieben und Beschäftigten im Kontext des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns," IZA Research Reports 97, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Duanmu, Jing-Lin & Norbäck, Pehr-Johan & Lu, Jane Wenzhen & Clegg, Jeremy, 2022. "Contraction under minimum wages? Operational and financial advantages of multinational subsidiaries in China," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2).
    7. Mayneris, Florian & Poncet, Sandra & Zhang, Tao, 2018. "Improving or disappearing: Firm-level adjustments to minimum wages in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 20-42.
    8. Giulia Giupponi & Stephen Machin, 2018. "Changing the structure of minimum wages: firm adjustment and wage spillovers," CEP Discussion Papers dp1533, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    9. Bai, Xue & Chatterjee, Arpita & Krishna, Kala & Ma, Hong, 2021. "Trade and minimum wages in general equilibrium: Theory and evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    10. Bossler, Mario & Gürtzgen, Nicole & Lochner, Benjamin & Betzl, Ute & Feist, Lisa & Wegmann, Jakob, 2018. "Auswirkungen des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns auf Betriebe und Unternehmen," IAB-Forschungsbericht 201804, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    11. Pestel, Nico & Bonin, Holger & Isphording, Ingo E. & Gregory, Terry & Caliendo, Marco, 2020. "Auswirkungen des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns auf Beschäftigung und Arbeitslosigkeit," IZA Research Reports 95, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Garcia-Louzao, Jose & Tarasonis, Linas, 2023. "Wage and Employment Impact of Minimum Wage: Evidence from Lithuania," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 592-609.
    13. Marco Caliendo & Carsten Schröder & Linda Wittbrodt, 2019. "The Causal Effects of the Minimum Wage Introduction in Germany – An Overview," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 20(3), pages 257-292, August.
    14. Clemens, Jeffrey, 2016. "The Low-Skilled Labor Market from 2002 to 2014: Measurement and Mechanisms," MPRA Paper 75690, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Alexandre Janiak & Jonathan Rojas Hepburn, 2023. "The Grasshopper, the Ant, and the Minimum Wage," Documentos de Trabajo 570, Instituto de Economia. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile..
    16. Lei Xu & Yu Zhu, 2023. "Does the employment effect of national minimum wage vary by non‐employment rate? A regression discontinuity approach," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 91(1), pages 18-36, January.
    17. Medrano-Adán, Luis & Salas-Fumás, Vicente, 2023. "Do minimum wages deliver what they promise? Effects of minimum wage on employment, output, and income inequality from occupational choice theory," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 366-383.
    18. Bachmann, Ronald & Boockmann, Bernhard & Gonschor, Myrielle & Kalweit, René & Klauser, Roman & Laub, Natalie & Rulff, Christian & Vonnahme, Christina, 2022. "Auswirkungen des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns auf Löhne und Arbeitszeiten," RWI Projektberichte, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, number 264288.
    19. Stelios Roupakias, 2025. "Employment and Distributional Effects of Greece's National Minimum Wage," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 39(1), pages 43-60, March.
    20. Sudheer Chava & Alexander Oettl & Manpreet Singh, 2023. "Does a One-Size-Fits-All Minimum Wage Cause Financial Stress for Small Businesses?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(11), pages 7095-7117, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    minimum wage; systematic review; evaluation; Germany;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:jns:jbstat:v:245:y:2025:i:1-2:p:113-151:n:1003. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.