Fewer staff members get holiday compensation
Summertime Vacations: The Ever-Expensive Joyride
Indulging in the supposedly most blissful weeks of the year might just apoint you to one hefty bill. As it turns out, many employment agreements include holiday pay during summer, but the number of recipients is dwindling.
In the private sector, fewer than 44% of workers are expected to receive holiday pay this summer, according to reports by the WSI Institute of the Hans Böckler Foundation. This figure represents a drop from the 46% recorded last year.
A Boost with a Contract
If you're fortunate enough to have a collective agreement, your chances of receiving that special payment significantly increase. The evaluation found that a whopping 72% of workers in companies bound by collective agreements in the private sector will receive holiday pay. Contrastingly, just 34% of workers in companies lacking such agreements do so. Malte Lübker, a wage expert at WSI, explains that not only is the special payment more common in companies with collective agreements, but the basic salary is usually higher as well.
The decline in employees with collective agreements has been noticeable in Germany since the 1990s. Approximately half (49%) of all employees are currently covered by a collective agreement, either for the company or industry-wide. Employees in large companies are more likely to benefit from holiday pay than those working for smaller companies, which tend to have fewer collective agreements. There is also regional variation, with a decline observed in both East and West Germany, as well as between men and women.
A Wide Spread in Take-Home Cash
The precise amount of holiday pay awarded under collective agreements fluctuates based on the specific terms within each agreement. According to WSI, the range spans from 186 euros for agricultural workers in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to 2,820 euros in the wood and plastics industry in the Westphalia-Lippe collective agreement region. The hotel and catering industry shows relatively low holiday pay, with 240 euros in Bavaria and 195 euros in Saxony provided as additional payments.
However, special payments are significantly higher in industries such as metal, printing, automotive, insurance, retail, construction, chemical, and many more. Interestingly, there is no longer any separate holiday pay in the public sector. Holiday and Christmas pay are now paid together as a uniform annual special payment in November. The banking industry and some branch collective agreements in the energy sector do not offer holiday pay, either.
As for why holiday pay in the private sector is increasingly elusive, the specific reasons remain unclear. Factors like economic conditions, industry-specific collective agreements, and statutory minimum leave requirements might all play a role. To gain a comprehensive understanding, further analysis focusing on these aspects would be needed.
In the context of summer vacations, a boost in receiving holiday pay can significantly be attributed to having a collective agreement, as 72% of workers in private sector companies with such agreements are expected to receive it, in contrast to only 34% in companies lacking such agreements. Furthermore, as holiday pay amounts under collective agreements vary greatly across industries in Germany, workers in industries like metal, printing, automotive, and construction may be eligible for significantly higher pay compared to others.
