The minimum wages in Germany, if I understand it correctly, are set by the union and employers, not the government. So there's no legal requirement to pay a minimum wage. Or is that not how it works?
It's a little more complicated, but yes [1].
The current government promised a 8,50EUR minumum wage.
Fun fact: The leftist German news paper TAZ who was fighting for minumum wage for quite some time, argued against the minumum wage for it's intern as "not possible".
[1] e.g. when you are below some wage, the government pays you some money for the "gap"
>when you are below some wage, the government pays you some money for the "gap"
Sounds like corporate welfare - companies don't have to provide a decent wage if the government will make up the difference.
This might change with the current government.