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Berlin (dpa) - In the corona pandemic of all things, the gap between people with lower incomes and high earners in Germany has narrowed somewhat, according to a study.

According to a study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the self-employed, who mostly belong to the upper half of the income groups, recorded losses due to the measures taken to contain the pandemic.

The study is available to the German Press Agency.

"The financial crisis already showed that income inequality is reduced in times of crisis because upper incomes fall more than those in lower income groups," explained study author and DIW expert Markus Grabka.

"In the corona pandemic, the declining income of the self-employed has a particular impact on distribution."

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However, the falling inequality is only a snapshot.

"If the pandemic continues well into the year and the containment measures tighten again, this could go hand in hand with rising insolvency figures and increasing unemployment and also hit the income situation across the board," warned Grabka.

According to the study, the monthly net household income of the self-employed decreased by an average of 16 percent or 460 euros compared to 2019 in the second lockdown.

In contrast, the incomes of salaried and civil servants' households rose nominally by five percent.

In the other household types, they remained unchanged on average.

Data from a special survey by the Socio-Economic Panel from January and February of the current year were evaluated.

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Grabka called for the most targeted financial support possible from self-employed and medium-sized companies to prevent bankruptcies and business closures. "So the federal government should think about granting the self-employed affected by the pandemic partial coverage of the cost of living," said Grabka. So far, fixed operating costs have mainly been covered. In addition, politicians should examine whether it is necessary to continue to help companies with significant profits and dividend payments by means of short-time working benefits at the expense of the public sector.

According to a recently published study by the Federal Statistical Office together with the Berlin Science Center for Social Research (WZB) and the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), people with higher incomes were more frequently affected by income losses in the first lockdown in spring 2020.

However, the consequences of the pandemic hit people with low incomes particularly hard: Around one in five said they were in financial difficulties or feared it.

The surveys ran from the end of March to the beginning of July last year.

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In addition to the self-employed (20 percent), semi-skilled and unskilled workers (17 percent) and simple employees (14 percent) described money problems particularly frequently. The proportion was significantly lower for people in skilled salaried professions (9 percent). "The lowest income groups were more often affected by leave and unemployment and had to work more often on site," explained WZB expert Philipp Wotschack. "The top education and income groups were more often able to do their work in the home office."

According to the DIW, income inequality has basically stagnated for around 15 years.

Although wage inequality has decreased since the introduction of the minimum wage in 2015, this is not reflected in household incomes, which include, for example, investment income.

According to the latest data from the Deutsche Bundesbank, among other things, the stock market boom had driven the total financial wealth of people in Germany to a record high at the end of 2020.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210504-99-464848 / 2

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