July 01, 2010
Harold Meyerson touts Germany as one of the winners in this downturn noting that its unemployment rate remained below that of the United States. While he attributes this fact to its strong manufacturing sector, Germany has actually suffered a steeper downturn than the United States.
The reason that Germany’s unemployment rate is more than 2 percentage points lower than the rate in the United States is that it has a policy of work-sharing to deal with inadequate demand. Instead of paying out benefits to unemployed workers, it pays companies to reduce workers’ hours.
In a typical arrangement workers would see their hours cut by 20 percent. The government makes up 60 percent of the lost wages or 12 percent of total wages. The company makes up 20 percent of the lost wages or 4 percent of total wages. The worker then ends up with a pay cut of 4 percent while working 20 percent fewer hours. This loss of pay is likely to be largely offset by fewer work-related expenses, for example lower commuting costs as a result of working a 4-day week instead of a 5-day week.
As a result of work sharing Germans are experiencing this downturn in the form of shorter workweeks and longer vacations. By contrast, in the United States workers are experiencing the downturn as near double-digit unemployment.
Comments