But:
From DIW (German Economic Institute) Weekly Report, October 2009 (pdf), "Real Wages in Germany: Numerous Years of Decline".
The line that the government has nothing to do with this, that it's just the unions and bosses, is the line being pushed right now by the German government. Yet there is no doubt that wage "restraint" is part of a deliberate policy beginning in the early '00s under Schröder. One of the obvious ways a government can create an economic environment in which unions are weakened in pay negotiations is to reduce social security safety nets (unemployment benefits, etc), so that workers are willing to accept tougher conditions rather than lose their jobs, and this is the series of programmes associated with the name Hartz.
In addition, the German social model has traditionally involved a political consensus involving the employers, unions and the government. To deny that now is disingenuous or market-worshipping ignorance. The brainless should not be in banking -- Willem Buiter
Try this: real wages (whether gross or net or 'total compensation') peaked in 2003, so they have not kept up with GDP growth. The brainless should not be in banking -- Willem Buiter
