Left Party Demands Increase in Employer's Pension Contribution to 60 Percent - Germany's Left Party demands pension reform to ease worker burden
Germany's Left Party is pushing for employers to shoulder a greater share of pension funding, calling for them to contribute "up to 60 percent," party leader Ines Schwerdtner said Monday in an interview with ZDF. She criticized the current system, where employees pay a "far, far larger" portion of pension contributions than employers.
Under Germany's statutory pension insurance, costs are traditionally split equally between workers and employers—a principle known as parity financing. However, the Left Party argues in a policy paper obtained by AFP on Monday that this balance has been undermined by supplementary retirement schemes, which are largely financed by employees.
The party points to the Riester pension, a state-subsidized private retirement plan, citing a survey of Riester policyholders that found workers contribute an average of 2.8 percent of their gross wages. The Left also warns that company pension schemes increasingly shift costs onto employees, leaving them to bear a disproportionate burden.
"We need to redistribute contributions fairly," Schwerdtner emphasized, arguing that this is essential to "keep pensions stable and ensure the overall stability of our pension system."
The party's demand for higher employer contributions is backed by a legal opinion from the German Bundestag's scientific service, which concludes that lawmakers have broad discretion in structuring social insurance financing. According to the assessment, non-parity funding—such as requiring employers to pay a larger share of pension costs—would be constitutionally permissible.
Beyond increasing employer contributions, the Left Party is advocating for a stronger statutory pension system. Its policy paper calls for raising the pension level back to 53 percent of average earnings.
Currently, the pension level stands at 48 percent of the average income. This figure is a purely statistical measure, representing the ratio of the standard pension—calculated after 45 years of work at an average wage—to the average earnings of all insured workers.
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