Germany's low-wage sector is shrinking significantly. In 2022, only one in six employees (15.2 percent) worked in this area.
In 2007 the proportion was 23.5 percent, in 1996 it was around 16 percent. The DIW sees one of the reasons for the decline in the introduction of the minimum wage in 2015 and its gradual increase in October 2022. But the unions' changed wage policy, which increasingly relies on minimum payments for lower wage groups, also has a positive effect on the low- wage sector.