In July, the German Parliament approved the country's first minimum wage, ?8.50 ($11.49) an hour, to start next year. The minimum wage was a major part of the deal reached last year between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Social Democrats, in order to form a coalition government. The Social Democrats had long insisted on the need for a minimum wage but the proposal had been resisted by sections of the German business community, which traditionally tends to support Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and had countered that a minimum wage would lead to fewer hires, especially in the struggling areas of the former East Germany. The Social Democrates say about 3.7 million people will get a raise as a result of the new law.
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