Unemployment

SPD

The SPD wants all industries to implement nationwide minimum wages on their own -- otherwise the party will push for a legally mandated minimum wage. The Social Democrats are opposed to weakening Germany's job-protection measures (Kündigungsschutz) and is against legislation that would interfere with the ability of unions and employers to negotiate wages for their respective industries. Worker co-determination -- where employees are legally entitled to be represented on company boards -- is not up for discussion. The SPD plans to eliminate the differences between the new unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless (Arbeitslosengeld II) in eastern and western Germany by hiking eastern Germans' monthly check to 345 euros. Older recipients of unemployment benefits will have an extra two years (01-02-2008 not 01-02-2006 as had been planned) before their unemployment benefits are slashed to the new lower levels. Other Germans without work have 12 months before their benefits are cut to the Arbeitslosengeld II level. The SPD wants to spend 250 million euros for regional efforts to find work for older Germans that have difficulty finding work.

CDU/CSU

The Union wants to cut Germany's non-wage labor costs by lowering unemployment insurance rate from 6.5 percent to 4.5 percent starting 01-01-2006. The conservatives also want recipients of long-term unemployment benefits to work for the first two years of a new job at wages outside of industry-wide contracts. The wage would be up to 10 percent lower than the industry standard in order to encourage employers to hire more people. The Union also wants to repeal job-protection measures (Kündigungsschutz) for firms with less than 20 employees for the first two years of employment. Non-permanent contracts could also be offered to workers that are already employed -- currently such limited contracts are only possible for new employees. If elected, the conservatives also want to allow wage contracts outside of the industry-wide negotiated standard if worker councils and two thirds of employees agree with their employers to such a deal. Lastly, the Union plans to nix so-called "Ich-AGs", which were meant to make it easier for unemployed Germans to become self-employed.

The Greens

The Greens want to implement "regionally and sector-specific differentiated" minimum wages. Non-wage labor costs should also be cut in the lower income levels. Those costs would then slowly increase parallel to worker income while the financial gap could be offset by higher taxes on the private income of wealthy individuals. Like the SPD, the Greens oppose changes to job-protection measures, industry-wide wage negotiations, and worker co-determination. The Greens support raising unemployment benefits in line with the regional cost of living. The party wants to look at the possibility of reducing working hours with an according reduction of wages during negotiations. The Greens want to expand the efforts of private companies in reducing long-term unemployment.

FDP

The FDP wants to move wage negotiation away from the currently common industry-wide tariffs and towards more individually-tailored agreements. Wage deals that deviate from the sector norm should be allowed if 75 percent of a firm's employees back such a move. Workers councils would become mandatory only in companies with more than 20 employees and advisory boards would be reduced in size. Legal job-protection measures would go into effect only after four years on the job and only at firms with more than 50 employees. The FDP wants to break up the Federal Labor Agency and split its responsibilities among regional job centers.

The Left Party

The newly-formed Left Party wants to roll back the government's decision to combine welfare and long-term unemployment benefits. Instead of receiving so-called Hartz IV benefits, those Germans long out of work would be encouraged to take part-time work and would have government aid added as net wages. The leftist party wants a minimum monthly wage of 1,400 euros and would not change current job-protection measures. The average work week would be legally limited to 40 hours.