German chancellor to continue backing minimum wage proposal

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday that discussions over the application of minimum wage were not over, after its own party’s (Christian Democratic Union) political coalition, the Free Democratic Party, expressed its rejection to that policy. Germany is one of the very few European countries that does not set a minimum wage by law. Instead it allows labor syndicates to negotiate it with employers sector by sector. With German opposition pushing for setting a minimum wage and the upcoming election in September 2013, the German Chancellor said that it backs setting a minimum wage. Merkel criticized the Free Democratic Party’s position from the suggestion and said that all political parties had to put an end to the lack of social services provided to workers in Germany. The Chancellor had agreed with major opposition party the Social Democrats to form an independent panel that will set a mandatory minimum wage similar to Britain’s Low Pay Commission. The commission would be formed of an equal number of employer and worker’s representative who would negotiate the minimum wage. Merkel has however said later that she wanted to set a sector-by-sector minimum wage rather than a nation-wide minimum wage