A minimum wage of 12 euros - thats what Olaf Scholz promised, and thats how it should be implemented.  Another decision should also be made at the same time.  There is criticism of the overall package.
 
 Berlin.  
 The traffic light coalition in the Bundestag wants to decide on the promised increase in the minimum wage to 12 euros on Friday.  A draft law by Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil is before the MPs.  The increase in the lower wage limit is planned for October 1st.  
 
 The draft law assumes that there are around 6.2 million employees with an hourly wage of less than 12 euros.  Women and people in East Germany should benefit disproportionately from the increase.
 
Different reactions
 The minimum wage increase was a core promise made by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the SPD election campaign.  At the same time, it is planned to raise the limit for mini-jobs from 450 to 520 euros.  From the point of view of the FDP, this is positive for more than six million mini-jobbers.
 Reactions to the proposed legislation varied.  The employers association BDA criticized that politicians were breaking the promise that the minimum wage commission would set the wage limit.  In this body, employers and unions usually determine the increments.  According to the law, the commission should only become responsible again after the unscheduled increase.
 "We are not concerned with the amount of the minimum wage," said employer president Rainer Dulger of "Welt" (Friday).  "The point is: The federal government is not sticking to the agreements that we 2015 made when the minimum wage commission was founded with the introduction of the statutory minimum wage," criticized Dulger.
 The German trade union federation criticized the fact that the mini-job limit should be expanded.  Millions of employees are still not covered by social insurance.  The Union faction announced that it would abstain from voting.  "I think its right that the minimum wage increases to 12 euros," said deputy parliamentary group leader Alexander Dobrindt of the "Augsburger Allgemeine" according to the advance notice.  "But the link with new, unnecessary bureaucratic requirements for business, such as excessive documentation requirements, is wrong."
 The DGB criticized the announced abstention of the Union faction in the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" as a "snaking course": "With waving flags per 12 Euro, the Union in Schleswig- Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia in the election campaigns, but they now want to abstain from the decisive vote in the Bundestag," DGB board member Stefan Körzell told the newspaper.  "I hope the voters remember that."
 
12 euros for minimum basic security according to 45 working years
 According to the federal government, without a basic pension surcharge, more than 12 euros per hour would be required after 38 years of work to land above the basic security.  An hourly wage of 12,97 euros would be necessary for this, it says in the answer to a request from AfD parliamentary group, which is available to the German Press Agency.  Full-time work with 38, 5 working hours per week is assumed.  Taking into account the basic pension, an hourly wage of 7.72 euros would be necessary.
 The AfD MP Jürgen Pohl, who asked the question, told the dpa that the "popular minimum wage election gift of the traffic light" does not keep what it promises.  Also 12 euros do not protect against poverty in old age.  (dpa)