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More Germans working second jobs
Published: 5 Oct 12 15:55 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20121005-45387.html
New statistics from the Federal Employment Agency show that more and more Germans are being forced to take on a second job, with some saying one job just isn't enough to make ends meet these days.
- Being poor costs years of life even as we all age - National (3 Oct 12)
- 1 in 7 German children growing up poor - Business & Money (20 Sep 12)
- More are working for low wages - Business & Money (10 Sep 12)
The number of people with a second job has increased significantly in the two years since the euro crisis began. The majority of them are women working tax-free 'mini-jobs' for €400 a month.
The development is "a clear indication that work no longer guarantees you have enough to live on, and the money from one job is not enough," Sabine Zimmermann, labour policy spokeswoman of the socialist Left party, told the Saarbrücker Zeitung.
But it’s in Germany's richest regions where working on the side has become more popular. In wealthy Baden-Württemberg, 11.4 percent of employees had mini-jobs at the end of 2011, while in comparably poor Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, it was 4.7 percent.
"The majority of workers with second jobs are well-qualified people with good incomes who earn something extra," Green Party labour expert Brigitte Pothmer told the paper.
She emphasized a different problem with the development: people who work overtime still pay insurance, taxes and social contributions based on those wages, unlike those who work mini-jobs, which are usually not taxed.
Pothmer said it was "extremely unfair to the insured population," and said the solution was to make mini-jobs less attractive by making it compulsive for those workers to pay social contributions.
But the government wants to do just the opposite, and plans to expand the mini-job programme and raise the tax-free earning limit to €450 a month, Der Spiegel magazine reported.
The Local/sh
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Your comments about this article:
I will keep banging the drum that these jobs will leave people with no pension when they retire and at this rate of expansion it is a real timebomb.
Create real jobs and control the agencies before it is too late.
Unfortunately, the marxist and socialist systems have also failed dismally. What options do we still have? Swedish style socialism with its suffocating bureaucracy? I worry for my grandson...
Johnne aus Edinburgh.
all this while the CEO of Commerzebank gives himself a yearly pay raise of more than 100% to 1.3 million € while the bank is failing and under government bailout support..... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......
As long as you're wishing for things, why not wish that everyone was good looking or healthy?
'Create Real jobs.....' Just who are you addressing this comment to? Do you think there's a cabal of businesspeople who are secretly holding back on creating Real jobs?
ECON 101
Yes I do think that and also these greed minded businesspeople have no interest in anything but themselves , I was addressing the comment to the electorate who do have the power to change things if (a very big IF) they can be mobilised by a political party that was not also filled with self serving corruptible individuals which does seem the way all over the world.
But if somebody doesn't take action then there will be bigger trouble than anything Europe has seen for a very long time.
You question "how many of these €400 second jobs are from people who have a €400 first job but can't live on it ?". Definitely, they are a minority, as the article reports ("The majority of workers with second jobs are well-qualified people with good incomes who earn something extra"). The €400 jobs are less taxed, so it makes sense to use them as a vehicle to cash for example sales bonuses (probably this why most of these €400 jobs are in the trade sector - 424 000 out of 2.6 million (16%), as reported in the original article). So the big news is actually that about half of these €400 jobs are tax evasion cases and the concept does not really serve the original purpose.
And no, there is no conspiracy of businesspeople to hold back from creating jobs. Yes, they follow their own interest, just like the ones they employ (and humans in general). But they have no duty to build businesses for the sake of creating jobs. If a business is not developed with profit in mind, it will go bankrupt pretty soon. And no business means no jobs, which is definitely less jobs, even in comparison with a business which is not labour-intensive.
We have factories in the advanced countries where all you see is a technician wandering across. Everything is automated and robots are at work. A machine needs no holidays, no social security overhead for the employer, cannot argue let alone go on strike, cannot get sick, has no politics, no family problems. Why should companies employ more people? This is what we have been working towards for at least 40 years.
It is all very sad.
Sorry but I don't believe that the "The majority of workers with second jobs are well-qualified people with good incomes who earn something extra".
The reason I say this is by simply observing the job section of the local newspapers from which I can only conclude that these " well qualified " workers must want to dumb down for their second job ,for they are seeking jobs as lorry drivers ,cleaners ,shop workers, waiter/waitresses, bartenders ,building labours.for that is all that is on offer around here.
P.S. I don't mean to insult the people doing these jobs because they also needed to make the world go round.
@Morseman
Agreed and it is another example of shortsightedness for when everyone but the technician and the management are unemployed where is the market for the goods produced?
Finding scapegoats is always easier than finding facts.
The minijobs ads you see in the newspaper are the real ones (the "better" half). The ones set up for tax evasion are arranged directly, between the employer and employee.
The gap between rich and poor is growing year on year ,the salaries of the managers of large corporations have increased at a rate way over inflation.
New words have now entered the dictionary to cover job loses called "outsourcing."
Facts you can draw your own conclusions on scapegoats .
@ChrisRea
So 1.3 million German women are now involved in tax evasion?
That seems a little far fetched .
Where did you take the number of 1.3 million German women from? The article says only that the total number of minijobs (2.6 million) is not equally divided between women (1.5 million) and men (1.1 million). It does not say what gender are the majority that earns good incomes in the first job (they are the ones susceptible of tax evasion).
Otherwise, the figure of 1.3 million people who chose to evade tax is actually low. They are the ones that use the minijob as a vehicle. Otherwise, you can rest assure that the number is significantly higher. The German progressive tax system, based on deductions, gives plenty of room. Have you spent couple of days abroad for whatever reasons and do you have a friend with a company there? Ask him/her to send you an "invitation to an interview" and that will be enough to deduct your travel and accommodation expenses from your taxable income (well, not business class, but I guess most people travel economy class when they have to pay from their own pocket). It is sad when even the tax adviser comes up with such ideas, thinking that this gives him/her a competitive advantage in his/her profession.
Evading taxes as a private person is not something to be found only in Greece - you find it in every country. Of course, the phenomena is much less spread in Germany than in Greece, but it would be actually an anomaly not to exist. And of course, a regular private person has less taxes (as value) to evade than a company. So you would not see in the newspapers headlines like "Salesman X had illegally halved his taxable income and paid in 2011 10.000 euro less than he should have". And of course, sometimes it is hard to demonstrate that it was illegal, just like in the case of the minijobs used to cash in sales bonuses.
Please read #1 mine and then #7 yours "Do you think there's a cabal of businesspeople ". mine #8
and finally yours #13 "Englishted...Don't know how much contact you have with 'businesspeople' as you call them....."
Do you see the deliberate mistake? .
@ChrisRea
Hold on before you pull me where do your figures come from?
2.5 million in the article 2.6 in yours?
There is no breakdown of the figures beyond " The majority of them are women" unlike you response?
The article does not even state that the majority are people from good earning
first jobs it only quotes Green Party labour expert Brigitte Pothmer as believing that with no figures to back it up.
So I stand by my belief that is poorly paid that take the majority of these jobs to live .
"Germany's richest regions where working on the side has become more popular. In wealthy Baden-Württemberg, 11.4 percent of employees had mini-jobs at the end of 2011, while in comparably poor Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, it was 4.7 percent."
Why because the wealthy areas are more likely to employ a cleaning lady on €400 than in the poorer areas .
I contested the figures of 1.3 million women involved in tax evasion. I never mentioned that and neither the article on The Local or the original article make such a mention. So it is your figure, first mentioned in your post #15.
From the article above: "...told the Saarbrücker Zeitung." The original article was published here: http://www.saarbruecker-zeitung.de/sz-berichte/wirtschaft/Immer-mehr-Arbeitnehmer-haben-Zweitjob;art2819,4462306#.UHGDTZjMgUt.
The German quotes I will use are from the mentioned article.
"Damals verfügten knapp 1,2 Millionen Beschäftigte über ein zweites Arbeitsverhältnis. Ende des Vorjahres waren es schon 2,6 Millionen." - Here is the figure of 2.6 million, taken by The Local as 2.5 million.
"Ende 2011 gingen rund 1,5 Millionen von ihnen einem Zweitjob auf 400-Euro-Basis nach. Unter den Männern waren es gut 1,1 Millionen." - that's the breakdown on gender, not included in The Local's article.
You are right, the article does not state the exact numbers of good earning first jobs, it is only the conclusion of the labour expert. If you feel yourself in a position to challenge her conclusion and expertise, you should come up with clear figures proving your point. But I guess you have none.
"the wealthy areas are more likely to employ a cleaning lady on €400 than in the poorer areas" - well, I guess it is actually "the wealthy areas are more likely to employ a cleaning lady on MORE THAN €400 (outside the minijob) than in the poorer areas".
It makes a bit of a problem when you quote from a different article to the one on this page to make your case.
I would question why you believe the greens labour expert ,it is a appointment within the party and she does not produce figures ,I believe I am better placed to comment as I unlike a green politician live in the real world and in that real world you will be extremely hard pressed to find a cleaning lady earning over €400 a month from one job.
But you I assume read the job section of any paper with all the €400 jobs ,but ignore the evidence of your own eyes and still believe the rise in these jobs has to do with tax evasion of any gender you care to take.
I find it good that, even if it is problematic for you, you accept dealing with the figures coming from reality and you do not settle with the partial and "adjusted" ones to be found in The Local's article. And that you dropped the figure of 1.3 million women (I still wonder from where did you took it).
I also find it good that you admit that your perspective is a personal one and that others, who have access to different social layers, might see also the things that are not published by newspapers.
I still wonder where you have found a cleaning lady being paid more than €400,but as you say maybe I don't have access to that "social" layer.
But I have enjoyed our little set to ,hope you have and I think we will have to agree to disagree.