- Germany edition
- Change edition:
- France |
- Norway |
- Spain |
- Sweden |
- Switzerland
Self-employed struggle - more need state support
Published: 3 Dec 12 16:18 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20121203-46543.html
The number of self-employed Germans who need basic state support to survive because they do not earn enough money themselves has almost doubled in recent years, according to a study published on Monday.
- Government 'massaged' poverty report - Business & Money (28 Nov 12)
- More Germans working second jobs - National (5 Oct 12)
- Being poor costs years of life even as we all age - National (3 Oct 12)
They now swell the 1.4 million-strong army of working people who rely on the state to get by - despite government reforms aiming to make work pay.
Germany's lack of a minimum wage has encouraged a flourishing, and controversial, low-wage economy. This new study shows how many of the self-employed are also failing to make ends meet.
Almost two-thirds of self-employed benefit claimants - dubbed 'topper-uppers' because of the way in which they are forced to supplement meagre incomes - earned less than €5 an hour, according to the study.
The most common occupations among this group included sales assistants, owners of pubs and fast-food outlets, musicians, freelance teachers, and language instructors.
Almost half of those unable to cover their basic needs were already working full-time.
They also tended to be significantly better educated than other welfare recipients. Almost 20 percent were university graduates; just 16 percent were wholly unqualified.
Despite this, three-quarters earned less than €400 a month. The evidence also suggests that they may well be caught in a tough poverty trap: only a quarter of those relying on state support in 2009 had managed to become self-sufficient a year on.
These recent figures are bound to fuel the growing unease felt within Germany at the growing numbers of the working poor - those earning so little that they cannot survive without state assistance.
DAPD/The Local/pmw
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
IEA: protect consumers from energy price hikes
The International Energy Agency said Friday that Germany must shield its consumers from paying too much of the cost of its ambitious switch from nuclear power and fossil fuels toward renewable energy. READ () »
German consumers keep recession at bay
Buoyant consumer confidence and increased household spending is keeping Germany, Europe's biggest economy, from recession, despite sagging exports and falling investment, data showed on Friday. READ () »
Tax evasion 'OK for Joe Normal' say Germans
Although Germans express outrage when wealthy or famous people evade taxes, many of them do the same themselves, albeit on a smaller scale, a new survey shows. READ () »
Spain and Germany fight youth employment
Germany has agreed to provide vocational training and jobs for young Spaniards starved of opportunities in their crisis-hit home country. READ () »
Car boss asks Merkel to rethink CO2 pledge
The president of the German Automobile Association (VDA) has written to Angela Merkel, asking her to retract her pledge to significantly reduce CO2 car emissions by 2025, it was reported on Tuesday. READ () »
SAP to hire hundreds of autistic IT experts
German tech company SAP said on Tuesday it wants to hire hundreds of people with autism to work as software testers and programmers. The search has, it said, begun for people “who think differently from others.” READ () »
Economists warn against German euro exit
While a third of Germans would rather pay with the old Deutsche mark than the euro, economists warn that a German exit from the currency union would result in a disaster. READ () »
Germany cool to France's EU economy plan
Germany said Friday that French President Francois Hollande's proposal for a eurozone economic government was "interesting" but reacted coolly to his call for strengthened European budgetary powers. READ () »
Au pairs rules relax for non-German families
Foreign families will soon be able to officially engage au pairs from outside the European Union, as long as they speak German at home, as the government prepares to change the law. READ () »
Germany refuses to slam French economic policy
Germany will not publicly criticize France over economic policy, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble insisted on Thursday, amid differences between Berlin and Paris over growth versus austerity in battling the eurozone debt crisis. READ () »
- 15/05 Anaemic economy feels winter chill »
- 15/05 ThyssenKrupp bins 3,000 admin jobs »
- 15/05 Pay deal for metal workers averts strike »
- 14/05 First ever strike hits Amazon's German unit »
- 14/05 Volkswagen plans giant car plant in China »
- 13/05 Metal workers enter huge warning strikes »
- 13/05 Germany launches new job creation drive »
- 10/05 German giants dazzle Dax »
- 10/05 Netto pioneers mobile phone payments »
- 08/05 Court: gay and straight tax breaks must match »
See all ads | Join the Marketplace
-
Shiply Worldwide Ltd
Shiply the Online Transport Market Place -
PsyShrink Munich
The Expat Psychologists in Munich, Frankfurt and worldwide -
Chambervelt Rooselain & Cie Ltd.
Insurance and financial planning for English speakers in Germany -
Weiss Institut
Free yourself from Smoking addictions, Sugar craving and Alcohol addictions -
British Corner Shop
British Corner Shop - The online supermarket for expats -
PsyShrink Frankfurt
The Expat Psychologists in Munich, Frankfurt and worldwide
923 jobs available
678 new jobs this week
29 new jobs today
- Manager Product Development TWC / Insecticides
- Innovation Manager International Packaging Technology (m/f)
- Marketing Management Trainee Programme in Hamburg
- Senior Process Engineer - (m/w)
- Automation Engineer - (m/w)
- Senior Buyer/ Availability Manager - (m/w) as soon as possible
- Junior Utilities Engineer - (m/w)
- HR High Potentials - Manager HR Projects (m/f)
- Financial Analyst Accounting (m/f)
- Intern Sourcing Europe Dry 2 - Fresh (f/m)
- 24/05 Sweden's economic mood dips: survey »
- 24/05 Swedish fashion grads turn to melancholy »
- 23/05 Sweden 'fails to help well-educated foreigners' »
- 23/05 Mixed results for Sweden refugee job push »
- 22/05 350 jobs lost as Ericsson shuts Swedish factory »
- 22/05 Sweden has 'lower tax burden' than Senegal »
- 21/05 Ericsson probed over suspected bribes »
- 21/05 Warning over 'long-term' Swedish export slump »
- 20/05 'Lean hospital a sign of Swedish welfare reform' »
- 20/05 H&M mulls production in South America and Africa »
- Dual Vocational Training in Europe – An Export Winner “Made in Germany”
The dual vocational training system “Made in Germany” is enjoying an amazing comeback – all over Europe.... - Let’s read together! Parents and the Promotion of Reading
It is good for children when they read a lot and actually enjoy it. - Collectivity and Representations of Community in Dance
With its streams of data and traffic, the present age is creating new forms of community. - Living Like a Poem – Sarah Kirsch Dies (05/23/2013)
On 5 May 2013, the poet Sarah Kirsch died after a short but serious illness in Heide in Schleswig-Holstein.... - Food trucks – meals on wheels
Small mobile restaurants are starting to catch on in Germany and they are often far more than your average snack wagons with Currywurst and Pommes.
- Theatre festival between the Saar and the Mosel
The Festival Perspectives in the German-French region around Saarbrücken is staging European theatre, dance and music productions. - The European Year of Citizens
2013 is the European Year of Citizens. - Europe Day, Robert Schuman and Class 4a
Enthusiasm for the idea of Europe – in the 60th European Competition, schoolchildren from Germany show what this could look like. - Relief organizations
The portals presented here provide information on the help programs offered by different organizations.
- Design Engineer Aerospace in Toulouse
- Design Feasibility Engineer / Craftsmanship Engineer (m/f)
- Director User Experience (m/f) at XING
- Ingenieur Sondergasapplikationen (m/w)
- Lead Commodity Leader (m/f)
- Lead Commodity Leader (m/f)
- Praktikum Information Management / Internship IM (m/f)
- Product Manager / Engineer (m/w) for our Search Engine
- Senior Anti-Virus Researcher (m/f)
- Senior Strategic Project Manager (f/m)
- 16:43 Schwarzfahren - three strikes and you're out
- 16:39 Cycling tours around Munich
- 16:38 Meet Up in Koblenz
- 16:36 Cinema or meet-ups
- 16:24 Champions League final
- 15:35 Questions about relocating to Freiburg
- 15:31 German Speaking Meetup
- 15:29 20ies Something- feeling lost
- 15:24 Buying a house with missing Baugenehmigung
- 15:15 The current weather in Munich
Start trading shares, equities, forex, etc. No commission on equities; Low min. margins. Apply for a CFDs account now!
'Charming, old, beamed cottage for holiday let in Jesus Pobre, Alicante, Spain
www.littlehouseinspain.com/
Professional and qualified consultancy on all insurance and finance matters in Germany, Telephone: +49 2163 571 1740, Email: bg@albatross-assurance.com
www.albatross-assurance.com
Visiting Berlin anytime soon? Book your hotel in Berlin here.
For home-from-home holiday accommodation, search for a Berlin apartment to rent.
Your comments about this article:
This country is becoming a low wage economy but nobody is letting the public know ,not that there would be much reaction with the look after no1 attitude that is the norm now.
If you just used free market principles, you wouldn't have all these subsidies. Germany is on a downward spiral.
If the economy is failing the choice is to cut government spending and to expect private industry to invest more, which it is supposed to do because people, having no state assistance, will have to work for whatever money they are offered.
But who would buy the additional goods this increased private investment will provide? Certainly not the low-paid workers employed to produce the goods or the other workers whose wages have been held down or reduced because of the introduction of a low wage economy.
Fr. Dr. Merkel like Thatcher before her is treating the state economy just as she would her household budget. She should have a wider perspective of what governments can do during a recession; actions which are not available to the ordinary person.