Chancellor Angela Merkel's
cabinet on Wednesday approved a bill to introduce a minimum
salary of 8.5 euros per hour in Germany.
The bill is expected to be passed into law by summer and to
go into force on January 1, 2015, but has been criticized by
economists for putting hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk.
According to an agreement reached between Merkel's
conservative coalition and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) led
by Sigmar Gabriel, the minimum wage will not be applied for the
first six months on the job for people rehired after more than a
year of unemployment, but will be applied to youths from age 18
and to apprentices.
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