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Labour economics

Inequality

Engineering

Aerospace engineering

Convergence (economics)

Wage

Operating system

Economics

Computer science

Wage share

Workforce

Wage inequality

Mathematics

Efficiency wage

Differential (mechanical device)

Demographic economics

Mathematical analysis

Economic growth

Minimum wage

Journal of Labor Economics

Monthly wage inequality in Germany continued to increase in the early 2000s, which is mainly explained by a rising part-time employment share. After 2010, inequality returned to the level of 2000. About half of the recent decrease is due to the introduction of the national minimum wage in 2015. While employment effects of the minimum wage are negligible, we find strong wage increases among the existing workforce. The minimum wage lowered wage inequality within eastern and western Germany but also led to a convergence of the east-west wage differential. The increased labor incomes were not offset by decreasing social benefits.

Wage Inequality in Germany after the Minimum Wage Introduction