Money Isn’t Everything for German Workers

Demand to subsidize shorter work weeks has employers fretting
ECB is looking to German wages to underpin inflation targets

City workers walk on a platform during the morning rush hour commute at Taunusanlage S-Bahn underground railway station in Frankfurt, Germany, on Monday, Aug. 7, 2017. London could lose 10,000 banking jobs and 20,000 roles in financial services as clients move 1.8 trillion euros ($2.1 trillion) of assets out of the U.K. on Brexit, according to think-tank Bruegel.Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg

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By Chris Reiter, Carolynn Look, and Christoph Rauwald

January 11, 2018 at 5:00 AM UTC

Updated on

January 11, 2018 at 9:50 AM UTC

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With Germany’s economy humming along and skilled staff hard to come by, workers at the likes of BMW AG, Siemens AG and Robert Bosch GmbH are gunning not only for a hefty wage increase but also for time and cash to help take care of their kids and grandparents.

Subsidies to encourage employees to reduce working hours are at the crux of contentious contract talks between German manufacturers and IG Metall, which represents 3.9 million workers. Ahead of negotiations on Thursday in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg -- home to Porsche and Mercedes-Benz -- the country’s biggest union has rallied about 160,000 people across Germany to halt work in recent days for about an hour in so-called warning strikes. It’s threatened further escalation if the talks don’t go well.