If that isn't a turning point: until a few years ago, the idea of a legally regulated minimum wage in the party system was something for outsiders.
Outside of the left, in whose understanding of the state private and collective bargaining autonomy are secondary, there were clear ideas about subsidiarity: regulating wages was a matter for employers and employees.
The welfare state served as a safety net if income was not sufficient in individual cases – be it because of unemployment, part-time work or low hourly wages.
This was a central model of the social market economy.
Now it is abandoned.
The unscheduled increase in the minimum wage to 12 euros, which the Bundestag intends to adopt with broad consensus this Friday, brings to an end what the old governing coalition started in 2015 with the introduction of this instrument, initially with some hesitation and doubt.
First, the mission statement was hung in a dark corner, so to speak, and now it is thrown away with the bulky waste.
And no party raises fundamental objections – not the FDP, not the CDU/CSU;
at most the Left Party, but of course 12 euros is not enough for them.
Those who are not in favor of the minimum wage increase show no "respect" for ordinary employees, the "secret heroes" of the working world: This exacerbation dominates the political discussion to such an extent that apparently no party dares to take a different position.
That marks the real turning point.
There is hardly any room left for the doubtful question of whether there really is no alternative to direct intervention by the legislature in individual employment relationships and in the work of the collective bargaining parties.
Is the welfare state suddenly unable to cope with serving as a safety net?
In any case, he's not short of money.
Does the widespread shortage of staff do nothing to help low-paid workers find better-paid work on their own?
Actually yes.
Is the basic right of employees to organize themselves in unions in question?
If that were the case, however, it would require solutions other than the minimum wage.
In fact, so far there has even been no political discussion about how and why the traffic light coalition's €12 law redefines the minimum wage.
So far, it has essentially served as a general, transparent lower limit against immoral low wages.
He was not a socio-political factor from which a minimum standard of living could be derived.
But now - according to the draft law - it is being "developed" into an instrument of "social participation".
Unfortunately, it remains unclear what this means exactly and whether the 12 euros already fulfill this.
But in any case, it reinterprets the minimum wage as a kind of social benefit.
However, this is not financed through taxes and contributions as usual – politicians issue direct payment instructions to employers.
This also fits in with dealing with the social partner body, the Minimum Wage Commission.
The 12-euro law prematurely annuls their current increase resolution, an affront to the social partnership itself.
So there is plenty of material for very fundamental arguments.
The most important thing would be a precise clarification of what the minimum wage is supposed to achieve.
Because in addition to well-known labor market risks, it mainly has the shortcoming that it is basically useless as a socio-political tool.
In its uniformity, it neither reflects regional differences in costs nor individually different needs.
A minimum wage, which in Munich is just enough for a single household with full-time work, feeds a family in Elsterwerda - if the job survives the sharp rise in costs.
For this reason alone, a minimum wage can never replace the network of state social benefits.
Anyone who really wants to gear it nationwide to the needs of large families in Munich should say so openly.
Consequently, an asset test would then have to be considered at the same time.
If you inherit or win the lottery, can the company reduce your wages after all?
This only shows where one can end up when the minimum wage is declared a socio-political tool without any further definition of purpose.
The greatest risk of the new minimum wage policy is not that the requirement of 12 euros as of October 1st will place a heavy burden on many companies, it will undoubtedly do so.
The greatest risk, both economically and politically, is throwing away proven ideas of order without the parties having to offer a conceptual replacement;
except the Left Party.
This makes wage policy even more susceptible to short-winded campaigns and tactical party disputes.
A lack of principle means that the force with the highest minimum wage demand ultimately dictates the course.
In this way, the spaces for social self-organization, personal responsibility and social partnership are becoming ever narrower.