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By Markus van Appeldorn
The employment agency has once again presented its annual wage statistics. According to these statistics, median wages in the district of Görlitz have risen in many sectors, in some cases noticeably, as of December 31, 2022. However, the statistical truth also includes the fact that the district still carries the red lantern in terms of wages throughout Saxony - and Saxony is already lagging well behind the median wage in eastern Germany. Nevertheless, Lars Fiehler, Managing Director of Location Policy at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) Dresden, is convinced that the district faces a great economic future and could emerge from the structural change as a winning region - but this requires a lot of common sense and a little patience.
Fiehler does not deny the truth: "We are also at the bottom of the league in Germany. Eastern Saxony always lands in the last wage segment," he says. After all, "big house numbers" like Siemens and Alstom in Dresden or the mining industry in the north of the district always have an enormous influence on the overall wage structure. In many trades, he sees the increasingly difficult struggle for skilled workers as a wage driver. "One or the other will have to do something to the pay packet with gritted teeth," he says.
Location advantage 30 years after reunification?
Structural change will leave its mark on the north of the district in particular. But: "If we do it sensibly, the region can become a winner region. Optimism for the future is in order," Fiehler is certain. He attributes this to two factors in particular. First, "There is a great deal of expertise in energy production here in the region," he says. This is due to decades of experience in generating electricity from lignite. Moreover, all graduated (nuclear) power plant experts came from the Zittau University of Applied Sciences during the GDR era. And this expertise would also be in demand in a future without coal. "Upper Lusatia could perhaps become Germany's largest location for the production of regenerative energies," he says. For example, the energy company Leag is already planning a huge photovoltaic park in the current coal area around Boxberg. Fiehler sees little point in setting up things here "completely out of the box" for which no expertise is available. On the other hand, research institutes would benefit: "In our experience, basic research develops a strong interaction with domestic companies."
The second factor is favorable for such a development: "There are areas available here for settlements, which is already a huge and difficult issue elsewhere in Germany," says Fiehler. He cites the economically mega-strong region of Baden-Württemberg as an example. There Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) already pointed out the lack of suitable areas for high-tech industrial settlements. "It may sound like a joke, but it is precisely the existence of these areas that can become a locational advantage here 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall," explains Fiehler. All of this cannot be realized tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, he says; the right course must be set with common sense. But: "The momentum is on our side, not to be the eternally outlying region," Fiehler is convinced. Now to the statistical wage data.
How did the employment agency create the pay scale?
The German Federal Employment Agency compiles the tables for gross wages subject to social security contributions annually on the basis of reports from employers. They contain information on age, professional qualifications, industries and the median wage, for example. Median means that the agency does not indicate the average wages of an industry, but the average wages. So if the median salary is 2,500 euros, half of this group gets less money and the other half gets more. If the average salary were measured, particularly high salaries would distort the statistics upward.
How much do people earn in the district of Görlitz?
The median gross wage of all employees subject to social insurance contributions in the district (50,273) was 2,650 euros in 2022 - an increase of 133 euros compared to the previous year and as much as 228 euros compared to 2020. Saxony-wide, the median wage is 3,012 euros. Leading the way in Saxony are the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz, as well as the Zwickau district, with median wages in some cases well above 3,000 euros. However, no region in Saxony comes close to the Germany-wide median wage of 3,646 euros - only in western Germany is the median wage even close to 4,000 euros.
A good half of all employees in the district are in the salary bracket between 2,000 and 3,000 euros. With a median wage of 2,645 euros, men are slightly below the general median wage, while women are slightly above it at 2,668 euros. This could be due to the fact that women tend to work more often in sectors such as healthcare - where many jobs are better paid than is often complained about.
In purely statistical terms, the top earner is female, German, over 55 years old and an academic. Accordingly, 25-55 year-olds receive a median wage of 2,658 euros - the older ones 82 euros more. There is a wage gap of almost 400 euros between Germans (2,761 euros) and foreigners (2,374 euros). Academics earn the highest income at 4,379 euros. Teachers at general schools, for example, are considered top earners with a median of 6,030 euros.
Where are the biggest wage increases?
Among the top earners are employees in mining, energy and water supply and disposal with a median of 4,195 euros - an increase of 461 euros on 2021 (3,734 euros). At the lower end of the wage scale, employees in the hotel and restaurant industry will earn 2,031 euros - an increase of around 250 euros compared with 2021 (1,786 euros). A slight decline from the former 4,860 euros (2021) actually occurred in the top-earning segment of education and teaching. There's currently 4,791 euros. "This could be due to an increase in the part-time rate," says Lars Fiehler, explaining the statistics.
