Arbeitsmarktpolitik: Falsche Anreize vermeiden, Fehlentwicklungen korrigieren

Abstract

The comprehensive labour market reform package implemented between 2003 and 2005 has made the German labour market more fl exible. Today, there is need to fi ne-tune some of the reforms and correct the institutional set-up in order to eliminate some unintended side-effects. The current federal government, however, considers a number of reforms which point in the wrong direction. This is particularly true for an expansion of the benefi t disregard clauses in means-tested minimum income support (‘Hartz IV’) and a further increase of the threshold below which marginal part-time jobs are exempt from employee social contributions and income taxes. This type of jobs tends to untermine tax and social insurance revenues and distorts the functioning of the labour market since in can be shown that they displace regular employment covered by taxation and social insurance. Hence, as a consequence, they should rather be eliminated. More generous earnings disregard clauses, on the other siede, would imply a signifi cant increase in the number of unemployment support benefi ciaries topping-up their benefi ts through part-time or marginal jobs. This, in turn, tends to prolong benefi t dependency and reduces the odds of leaving the income support schemes. Regarding the regulation of the labour market in Germany, there is no need to re- or de-regulation fi xed-term contracts. With respect to low pay, a general, but moderate statutory minimum wage would be a better alternative to sectoral, collectively agreed minimum wages made generally binding through extension. Last, but not least, since temporary agency work has established itself as a specifi c segment of the labour market with longer assignments and a signifi cant wage differential to regular employment, there is some need to revise the rules governing temporary agency work.