{"id":6205,"date":"2026-04-21T08:49:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/6205\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T08:49:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:49:20","slug":"western-german-workers-earn-17-more-than-eastern-peers-35-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/6205\/","title":{"rendered":"Western German workers earn 17% more than eastern peers, 35 years on"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/590af04db6ae414debf1273cf5188b44.jpeg\" alt=\"There are banknotes of 100 and 50 euros on an inheritance tax return form. Jan Woitas\/dpa\" loading=\"eager\" height=\"533\" width=\"800\" class=\"yf-lglytj  loaded\"\/> There are banknotes of 100 and 50 euros on an inheritance tax return form. Jan Woitas\/dpa      <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Full-time employees in western Germany still earn around 17% more than their eastern peers even 35 years after reunification, official data showed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Average gross annual earnings including bonuses reached \u20ac55,435 ($65,308) in the west in 2025, compared with \u20ac46,013 in the east. On an hourly basis, gross pay averaged \u20ac25.61 in the west and \u20ac21.36 in the east.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The data was released by the Federal Statistics Office after a request by lawmaker S\u00f6ren Pellmann from The Left.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The figures show the wage gap remains wide, decades after Germany reunified in 1990 following the fall of the Berlin Wall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">A study by the Hans B\u00f6ckler Foundation last year also put the wage gap at 17%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Experts say lower collective bargaining coverage in eastern Germany is a key factor, as workers covered by agreements tend to earn more. However, living costs and rents are often lower in many eastern regions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Pellmann described the persistent gap as a political failure, saying it reflected weak collective bargaining and an economic model that has long treated eastern Germany as a low-wage region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">He called for a higher minimum wage and stronger collective bargaining, suggesting public contracts should be awarded only to companies bound by collective agreements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are banknotes of 100 and 50 euros on an inheritance tax return form. Jan Woitas\/dpa Full-time employees&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6227,3031,3341,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-6205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-collective-bargaining","9":"tag-eastern-germany","10":"tag-federal-statistics-office","11":"tag-germany"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}