Wer erhält einen Ernährerlohn? Befunde nach Region und Geschlecht

Over the last two decades, not only increasing rates of non-standard work but also declining real wages and rising wage disparities have lowered the importance of standard employment relationships, and, consequently, the ‘male breadwinner model’. To date the question of the direction in which wages have developed in standard employment relationships in the core manufacturing and service industries in Germany has not been extensively addressed. That is, are workers in standard employment relationships still able to earn wages that provide for a whole family? Based on information from the LIAB (Linked Employee-Employer Data) the present analysis examines wage trends at the top end of the wage distribution scale for women and men in standard employment relationships in east and west Germany since the mid-1990s. Moreover, factors affecting the wage trends are examined, such as gender segregation within and amongst industries and firms, and the binding effects of collective agreements as the institutionalized representation of interests. For the year 2008 results first demonstrate rigid disparities between ‘single earner wages’ in east and west Germany as well as clear-cut gender differences, and, second, that gender segregation and union density have a different impact depending on whether workers are male or female in east or west Germany.