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Germans lawmakers reject minimum wage

BERLIN, April 26 (UPI) -- German lawmakers have rejected a proposal to establish a minimum wage for the nation's workers.

Social-Democrat and Green party members pushed unsuccessfully for the wage legislation Thursday, EUobserver reported. Proponents of a minimum wage argue its needed to bolster living conditions in a country where unemployment is just 5.4 percent but pay scales are low and job stability is shaky, EUobserver said.

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The low jobless rate can be traced, in part, to reforms made a decade ago under the Social-Green government of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The reforms made it easier for companies to hire and lay off workers, lowered taxes and trimmed social benefits, EUobserver said.

Social-Democrat leader Peer Steinbrueck, who is running against Chancellor Angela Merkel in elections scheduled for September, said a minimum wage would help produce a "socially just economy."

Labor Minister Ursula von der Leyen has acknowledged the "widening income gap," but maintains a minimum wage isn't needed.

Enzo Weber, a macroeconomics and labor market professor at Regensburg University, said a minimum wage would not end the gap.

"The reason why problems are big in the low-income area is because there are too many low qualified workers for too few adequate jobs," he told EUobserver Thursday.

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"There is virtually nothing for the people with low qualifications to get a job in a middle-qualified area. That's where there are a lot of jobs available, but not that many to take them, because it requires extra training. And that's where we should focus the labour market policies on."

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