Do American auto workers have an inferiority complex? VW workers get paid $67 an hour in Germany

[Xithras]

16. They also have no minimum wage. They have something MUCH better.

In Germany, there is no minimum wage. What they have, instead, is a law making it illegal for a business to pay an "immoral" wage. If an employer offers you a job for $X per hour, and you realize that the work is very hard and is worth twice that, you can sue them and a court will force them to pay you the difference.

Which means: If 5 auto factories are paying their employees $50 an hour, and a 6th auto factory opens and only pays its employees $20 an hour, the employees in that 6th factory can sue and force the factory owner to pay them more. In Germany, if the pay isn't within 75% of the market rate for that type of work (and 75% is considered extreme, right on the edge of immorality), it's a given that the employer will LOSE. There have been many cases where employers have been within 10% of average and lost. Trying to scrimp on pay is a losing proposition in Germany, and the overall effect has been wage inflation as employers try to stay ahead of the wage curve to avoid costly lawsuits.

This destroys any incentive to undercut wages.