According to the German Minister of Economic Affairs, Katherina Reiche, Germans must work longer and harder. Reiche said this on Saturday in an interview with the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Her statements led to fierce criticism.
Due to the changing population composition and the increasing life expectancy, Reiche believes it is inevitable that people will have to work longer. The minister states that in the long term, it is not sustainable that two-thirds of adult Germans work while one-third receives a pension.
Reiche compares Germany to the United States. There, employees work an average of 1,800 hours per year, compared to 1,340 hours in Germany. The minister emphasizes that while many Germans do physically demanding work, other employees can and want to work longer.
The minister stated that the reforms from the coalition agreement of the new German government will not be sufficient in the long term. “The social security systems are overburdened.” According to her, this situation could affect German competitiveness.
Two months ago, Chancellor Friedrich Merz also suggested that Germans should work longer. “We no longer have the productivity in our country that is needed to maintain prosperity, especially to finance our social security system,” Merz said in a speech in parliament.