During his appearance at the parliamentary questioning of the federal government on Wednesday, Hubertus Heil operated with half-truths and blatant threats against the Minimum Wage Commission. He acted as if this commission had to do what the government expected of it. Point.

Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) – in line with his party colleague Olaf Scholz – absolutely wants to implement a significantly higher minimum wage. He doesn’t take the facts too seriously.

He is also not afraid to put a lot of pressure on the minimum wage commission, which is legally independent. Here too he is in sync with Olaf Scholz.

During his appearance at the parliamentary questioning of the federal government on Wednesday, Heil used half-truths and blatant threats against the Minimum Wage Commission. He acted as if this commission had to do what the government expected of it. Point.

Heil only has to look at the homepage of his own ministry. There, in large letters, it says: “The federal government has set up a permanent, independent minimum wage commission to adjust the statutory minimum wage.” But it is precisely this independence that seems to bother the SPD politician.

Scholz and the SPD already want to contest the European election campaign and the whale fights that will follow in the fall in three East German countries on the subject of the minimum wage. If anyone doubted that, Heil has now refuted it.

When trying to attract voters with the minimum wage, Heil uses several argumentative tricks.

Heil claimed several times that the most recent increases in the minimum wage – 12.41 euros in 2024 and 12.82 euros from 2025 – were “unilaterally” determined by employers.

This is demonstrably false. In the decision in June 2023, the union representatives on the commission were outvoted: by the employers and the chairwoman Christiane Schönefeld, on the board of the Federal Employment Agency until 2022. This is exactly what the law stipulates: in the event of a stalemate, the chairman has the deciding vote.

Of course Heil knows that. But from the perspective of Social Democratic campaigners, it fits the picture better to declare the hard-hearted employers to be solely responsible.

Heil literally said in the Bundestag: “The commission must decide, must decide together.” But that’s exactly what she doesn’t have to do.

If representatives of employers and trade unions could only decide together, why was the position of neutral chairman created in the law? But they exist for one reason only: to decide if necessary in a stalemate.

Heil emphasized several times that he did not want to question the work of the commission. But she “must abide by law and order.”

A commission that meets Heil’s claim must, above all, make “uniform” decisions. She didn’t do that last time – exactly according to the provisions of the minimum wage law.

If election campaigner Heil took what he says seriously, Minister Heil would have resigned long ago. Finally, the federal government made the 12.41 euro decision binding for all employers by ordinance. And that even though it wasn’t a uniform decision.

The Labor Minister is continuing what the Chancellor started with his demand for a 15 euro minimum wage. He is trying to put massive pressure on the commission.

He is not so clumsy as to threaten to shift the setting of the lower wage limit to the government and parliament, which the SPD and the Greens would prefer anyway.

Heil only speaks of “expectations” of the commission. In addition to the “uniform” decision, this includes a “significant increase”. So the members of the commission at least find out what Heil thinks about the committee’s alleged independence, namely nothing.

The Minimum Wage Commission must present its next report and its recommendations for 2026 and 2027 in the first half of 2025, i.e. before the federal election.

Heil made it clear what he had in mind: “never again a unilateral decision” and “a significant increase”. Otherwise, the minimum wage will become an issue in the 2025 federal election campaign.

But that was only a half-truth: Scholz and Heil have long since exploited the minimum wage for party political purposes. The Commission’s only role is to act as a fig leaf.