We also have a minimum wage, and if it was implemented the way social democrats and greens wanted it it would be fine. Unfortunately we also have “Christian” democrats (think US Republicans from 10 years ago) and Libertarians, who managed to fuck it up so there are quite a few “exceptions” for who can be underpayed below the minimum now. Long-time (>6 months) jobless people for example (they can also be fired just before gaining the “privilege” to receive said minimum, resetting the timer for them).
There are more exceptions of course, can’t have the “wrong” people get enough money to life from.
Tbh if some people working full-time in Germany can’t afford rent on minimum wage, I suspect it’s an issue with the rent, not the minimum wage. Minimum wage in Germany is more than 2x what it is in Estonia. I think your minimum is around our average (a bit over 2k euros per month pre-tax)
You can afford rent (although it costs about 60%-70% of what you have) mostly, outside of city centres. The rent costs are indeed abysmal though.
Main problem is the constant fight of right-wingers (incl. “Christians”) and libtards to make exceptions who’s eligible for minimum wage and keep the minimum wage as low as possible. With welfare they already managed to get it as low as human rights and our constitution allows, they literally can’t reduce it as this would clearly violate human dignity according to our highest courts. So they punch holes in the minimum wage to make sure as many people as possible are stuck at welfare-level. The housing market in that bracket basically collapsed, to quote someone working at a federal agency: “These emergeny vouchers (for housing) aren’t worth shit anymore.”
(Those vouchers, lit. “Dringlichkeitsbescheinigung”, were originally meant to be the the last line of defence to prevent people from landing on the street).
We also have a minimum wage, and if it was implemented the way social democrats and greens wanted it it would be fine. Unfortunately we also have “Christian” democrats (think US Republicans from 10 years ago) and Libertarians, who managed to fuck it up so there are quite a few “exceptions” for who can be underpayed below the minimum now. Long-time (>6 months) jobless people for example (they can also be fired just before gaining the “privilege” to receive said minimum, resetting the timer for them). There are more exceptions of course, can’t have the “wrong” people get enough money to life from.
Tbh if some people working full-time in Germany can’t afford rent on minimum wage, I suspect it’s an issue with the rent, not the minimum wage. Minimum wage in Germany is more than 2x what it is in Estonia. I think your minimum is around our average (a bit over 2k euros per month pre-tax)
You can afford rent (although it costs about 60%-70% of what you have) mostly, outside of city centres. The rent costs are indeed abysmal though. Main problem is the constant fight of right-wingers (incl. “Christians”) and libtards to make exceptions who’s eligible for minimum wage and keep the minimum wage as low as possible. With welfare they already managed to get it as low as human rights and our constitution allows, they literally can’t reduce it as this would clearly violate human dignity according to our highest courts. So they punch holes in the minimum wage to make sure as many people as possible are stuck at welfare-level. The housing market in that bracket basically collapsed, to quote someone working at a federal agency: “These emergeny vouchers (for housing) aren’t worth shit anymore.” (Those vouchers, lit. “Dringlichkeitsbescheinigung”, were originally meant to be the the last line of defence to prevent people from landing on the street).