The training allowances agreed in collective agreements have always differed greatly depending on the industry and region. The range currently ranges from 325 euros per month, which trainees in the Thuringian hairdressing trade receive in the first year of training, to 1,580 euros in the west German construction trade, with which trainees in the fourth year of training are paid. This is the result of a current evaluation of 20 selected collective bargaining sectors, which the collective bargaining archive of the Institute for Economic and Social Sciences (WSI) of the Hans Böckler Foundation is presenting shortly before the start of the new training year 2021.
The highest training remuneration among the collective bargaining sectors examined here is currently paid at 1,166 euros (public service: federal government and municipalities) or 1,161 euros (public service: federal states) for the care professions , which now have separate regulations within the collective bargaining agreements of the public service. The parties to the collective bargaining agreement have thus reacted to the acute shortage of skilled workers in this area. However, these training allowances are only binding for public institutions that fall under the collective agreement for the public service (TVöD) or the collective agreement of the federal states (TV-L). In private care facilities without a collective agreement, however, the training allowance can also be significantly lower.
In ten of the 20 collective bargaining sectors examined, the monthly training allowances in the first year are between 700 and 1,000 euros. These include the main construction trade, the printing industry, retail trade, the building cleaning trade, the wood and plastic processing industry, the hotel and restaurant trade, the motor vehicle trade, the private transport trade, the confectionery industry and the textile industry. In agriculture in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a training allowance above the 700-euro mark is now also paid at 721 euros. In the west German collective bargaining district of North Rhine, however, the training allowance in agriculture is just below 690 euros.
The lowest training allowances are paid in the bakery trade (645 euros), in floristry (634 euros in West and 425 euros in East Germany) and in the hairdressing trade (575 euros in North Rhine-Westphalia and 325 euros in Thuringia). In the collective agreements of the East German floristry and the Thuringian hairdressing trade, which have not been renewed for a long time, the training allowance is even below the statutory minimum training allowance of 550 euros per month. According to the Vocational Training Act (BBiG), there is theoretically the possibility of falling below the minimum wage for trainees due to the priority of the collective bargaining system. In practice, however, this is unlikely to have any effect.
In just seven of the collective bargaining sectors examined by the WSI, there are nationwide uniform training allowances , including the bakery, banking, printing, Deutsche Bahn AG, public service and insurance industries. Most recently, the formerly lower training allowances in the building cleaning trade in East Germany have been raised to a national level.
In 13 collective bargaining sectors, however, there are still differences in the level of training allowances between the western and eastern German collective bargaining areas. In the chemical industry and the metal and electrical industry, the East German training allowances of 9 and 30 euros per month, respectively, are only relatively slightly below the western German pay scale area considered here, although regional differences also exist within western Germany. In other tariff sectors such as the hairdressing trade or floristry, the east-west differences still amount to more than 200 euros per month. In the majority of cases, the training allowances differ between 50 and 100 euros.
The considerable differences between the industries also continue in the second and third year of training. The training allowances in the second year of apprenticeship vary between 415 euros in the hairdressing trade in Thuringia and 1,230 euros in the West German construction trade. In the third year of the apprenticeship, the differences are between 465 euros (hairdressing trade in Thuringia) and 1,495 euros (West German construction industry). In a total of eleven collective bargaining sectors, trainees from the third year onwards earn some well over 1,000 euros. In a further four sectors, at least in the western German tariff districts, the 1,000 euro mark will be exceeded.
„The big differences have something to do with the different negotiating positions of the unions,“ says the head of the WSI collective bargaining archive, Prof. Dr. Thorsten Schulten, „as the training allowances are usually agreed as part of general wage negotiations In addition, in many industries an increasing shortage of skilled workers increases the pressure to adapt in the direction of better training conditions. „
