Two pages for each

Germany is an extremely developed nation with a Human Development Index (HDI) valued at 0.916. They currently rank 6th in the world on that same index which outlines a life expectancy of 80.9 at birth, 16.5 years of education and ultimately a decent standard of living with an average household net-adjusted disposable income of USD 31,925 a year (World Factbook, 2016). In 2016 it was reported that 77% of the German population lives in urban areas, this equates to approximately 62,260,620 people (World Population Prospects, 2015).

There have been no instances of child labour in Germany (children aged 5-14) which can be attributed to the Youth Labour Protection Laws currently in place. In fact, Germany is engaged in a development cooperation for the abolition of child labour which is now in effect in 88 countries around the globe (Country Profiles: Germany, 2014).

Elementary school is compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 15 in Germany. This has created a lasting literacy rate of 99% spanning from 1977 to 2016. Also, females enrolled in unspecified tertiary programmes was 55% in 2011 (OECD: Germany, 2015). In 2011, 59% of graduates in mathematics and statistics were women; in 2000, that number was a meagre 42% of graduates in this field. In physical sciences, the share of female graduates increased from 27% in 2000 to 42% in 2011. Though Germany does have a high youth population, (those aged 15-19), the average age of marriage is 32.9. With this information, it is fair to say that Germans do not tend to marry early in life.

The mean age at marriage for women is 30.9 and 33.4 for men. There is some evident inequality between men and women in Germany, especially in the labor market. The average hourly wage for women is 23.2% lower than for men and the gap appears to be growing according to Germany’s Federal Statistical Office; that’s nearly 7% higher than the EU average which weighs in at an average of 16.4%. “Kinder, Kirche, Kuche” (children, church, kitchen) is the common saying which encompasses the 3 different aspects of a woman’s life in Germany. Rabenmutter are mothers who don’t take proper care of their children; it is a rather prevalent view that if a woman goes back to work rather than staying at home with her children, she cannot possibly be a good mother.

Child care is scarce; yet school ends at 1pm, often forcing mothers to choose staying at home due to inflexible work hours. In 2007 German mandate concluded 14 months of paid parental leave; though the intention was to benefit mothers, the reality became that employers became less likely to hire young women 20-40 (in child-bearing years). Women are underrepresented in economic decision-making, boardrooms, and governments at all levels. Among the hurdles for women are: deficient child care, lesser opportunities, including an underrepresentation in management positions and ultimately career choices (women are more likely to work in underpaid sectors i.e. social services).

Gender inequality in Germany is often masked by the nearly equal labor participation rate between both genders. What the labor participation rate does not consider are the various discrepancies present within the German society in regards to gender equality in the workplace. According to the European Commission, Germany possesses one of the highest gender wage gaps in the EU at 22% compared to EU’s average of 16% (UNDP, 2015). In 2008, the organization initiated the Equal Pay Day campaign ‘Business and Professional Women’ (BPW). It aims to raise awareness to the general public about the gender pay gap. In September 2011, the Federal Office for Equal Pay and the Equal Pay Day Forum were created. They serve as a medium to share information material on a consistent basis to further educate the public about the gender pay gap.

The Equal Pay Day campaign has been successful in attracting attention from the public. However, binding measures to reduce the pay gap or to fairly value female work did not exist, until last year. On the Equal Pay Day in the year 2015, the Minister for Women and Family Affairs, announced that the Government will release a new legal act with which income structures are to becoming more transparent. This new transparency act (Gestez für mehr Lohntransparenz) will make it mandatory for large corporations who possess more than 500 employees to report their activities in order to guarantee equal pay for men and women. Companies will also be asked to identify existing discrimination structures and mechanisms, in efforts to close the gender gap. Additionally, employees will have the right to seek justification for his/her job evaluation.

Numerous tools have been created in order to help increase wage transparency and minimize the gender wage gap within the workplace. In 2009, the Ministry for Families, Seniors, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) launched the tool “Logib-D” (Lohngleichheit im Betrieb – Deutschland). The “Logib-D” is a free internet tool which enables companies to analyze their earning structures and identify any existing pay gaps. “Logib-D” calculates which section of the gender pay gap in the company is due to (1) years of vocational training, (2) years of work life, (3) hierarchical position, (4) part time, (5) size of team and (6) gender. Another tool which exists is eg-check.de. It was developed in 2010 with the purpose of enabling employers, employee representatives, collective bargaining parties and employees access to pay regulation and pay practices information to help them identify possible direct and indirect pay discrimination.

Unions have also developed equal pay initiatives to help alleviate the problem. The following highlights existing equal pay initiatives undertaken by German work unions:

· In 2014, the Industrial Metal Union (IG Metall) launched the campaign “Come on – Fair pay for women”

· The Food, Beverages and Catering Industry Trade Union (NGG) plans to analyze and evaluate all collective agreements for provisions with hidden discriminatory effects towards women and part-time workers

· In 2014, Ver.di launched a campaign towards upgrading social and teaching employment.

· Ver.di has also launched another campaign called “Pflege 3000” (Care 3000). The campaign’s core belief is that every qualified full-time care worker should earn at least €3000 per month

· The EU and the Federal government financed a funding programme called “Gleichstellen” (Treat Equally). The project is aimed at improving working conditions for women and men through brand-oriented equality policies (Dr. Alexandra Scheele, 2015)

Low female participation in full-time employment has become a prevalent issue within the German labor force. Starting a family impedes the growth for German women in the workforce. It is difficult to return from a long maternity leave and get back to gainful employment. Thus, women will exclude themselves from the labor force or simply settle to work part-time jobs in order to better accommodate their daily schedule. Furthermore, caring for small children remains the primary cause for women’s disadvantage within the workforce.

Therefore, the Reconciliation policy has become a crucial policy field in Germany. It recognizes the women population who desire an opportunity to balance a family and a fulfilling career. In January 2007, a new income replace scheme for mothers (Elterngeld) was established. The new Elterngeld scheme will aim for mothers to retain two thirds of previous earnings after childbirth for a period of one year. The scheme will recognize mothers as “employed” persons who need income during their maternity leave. Elterngeld is paid for two additional months following the initial year, in the circumstance that the father wishes to also take leave. Thus, prolong the entitlement period to a potential total of 14 months. This is to encourage fathers to contribute more actively in the action of childcare, to lessen the responsibilities on the mother.

The lack of childcare facilities also poses a significant influence on Germany’s low female labor participation statistics. Mothers experience many difficulties in finding adequate and affordable childcare facilities. In 2013, the Federal government stated that 780 childcare facilities for children under the age of 3 had been planned. Since August 2013, every child under the age 3 was entitled a facility. If childcare could not be provided by the municipality, guardians could file complaints. Only 29.3% of all children under the age of 3 were granted a childcare facility (Botsch, 2015).

Countless campaigns, initiatives and programmes have been launched and implemented with the purpose of eliminating gender inequality. With an increasingly ageing population and the future of a scarce labor force, Germany will seek to create and implement new policies to resolve these predicaments, especially those of gender inequality.

Germany has a democratic government in the three branches of government (federal, municipal, state) with a voting age of 18 (16 for select few state and municipal elections). Germany has multiple political parties which compete for votes during election time with the major two parties being the Christian Democratic Union (current Chancellor belongs to this party), and the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Additionally, the Greens party has been becoming more politically competitive since the 1990s with the promotion of renewable energy and sustainability.

Germany rates amongst the least corrupt countries in the world according to World Bank sitting in the 94th percentile for corruption, as well as effective governance in 2014 (World Bank, 2015). The environment for which business is conducted in Germany doesn’t allow for a significant level of corruption due to particular laws. The criminal code in Germany deals with individuals who partake in forms of bribery as well as the Administrative Offenses Act punishes companies partaking in bribery. The area most likely to find corruption in Germany is land because of deals between corporate entities and the public (Anti-Corruption Business Portal, 2016). Germany is also a part of the OECD Anti Bribery Convention signed in 1997 which has the aim of reducing bribery in international business and is signed by 41 nations (OECD, 2016). In addition to this, because of membership with the European Union, Germany also must follow EU Procurement Directives which restricts a company found guilty of corruption’s ability to bid on public tenders (Anti-Corruption Business Portal, 2016).

In Germany, NGO’s are legally allowed to operate within Germany unless they actively oppose democratic rights (Anti-Corruption Business Portal, 2016). NGO’s in Germany are able to work with the media and public in order to influence change however they have limited effectiveness influencing government policies (Anti- Corruption Business Portal, 2016).

Germany has accepted over one million refugees mainly from Syria and Iraq since the beginning of 2015. This has international implications which arise from the Schengen area free movement agreement allowing the immigrants essentially free travel around Europe including to nations which are members of the European Union who oppose the asylum seeking refugees finding a new home in Europe. Diplomatic ties between nations like Hungary who are strongly against the Syrian refugees feel as if Germany allowing the refugees has and will increase the number of refugees within Hungary because they will be able to freely travel there without a supervised border stopping them (Jazeera, A. 2016). While originally the acceptance of the refugees was internationally supported as it showed a high degree of tolerance of the German people, the overall attitude of the German people towards this has soured since the New Year’s sexual assault allegations throughout Germany, and other issues regarding the immigrants (Jazeera, A. 2016). The integration of the refugees with the aim of the German society in areas like finding employment, reducing language barriers, politics, and education will be important in the upcoming years.

17

The German government is currently lead by the first female councilor, Angela Merkel. She has been in power since 2009 and has gotten re-elected in 2013, giving the CDU/CSU power once again but there was not a clear majority. Thus they created a Grand Coalition with the other leading party SPD (Government, 2016).

Germany’s current corruption score is 81/100 making it the 10th best country in the world according to the perception index of 2015 (Germany Transparency Index, 2015). Although Germany has scored high on the corruption index there has been some questionable actions since. It has been reported that the government haven’t implemented 12 out of 20 of the recommended changes given by the same report (MarketLine, 2014). This could cause some problems for the country when it comes to the next poling because it doesn’t show strength among the parties in the government, when changes in legislation are slow moving.

Even if Germany has a high transparency rating, things can change without warning, thus measures need to be taken beforehand in order to prevent future corruption to occur. In the case of Germany few measures seem to be under way to discourage malpractice and shady dealings in sectors such as auto, construction, and outside contracting (Export, 2016). Areas that have been the major focus for government penalties by percentage are 64% public administration, 26% private business sector, and 10% to law enforcement (Export, 2016). Thus in order to discourage future growth in Germany’s corruption; their main focus areas need to be better managed to ensure equal coverage over the dealings within the country.

The Youth National policies fall within Federal law but are considered a responsibility for all citizens. Thus a federal ministry for youth and family affairs was established to coordinate policies and actions within the country to promote growth of their youth. Initiatives starting in 2015 and moving forward may include:

Initiative to strengthen youth- a program to help with disadvantaged youths and their migration into the country

Their objectives include: finding work for youth exiting the school system, raise funding for youth post secondary education, and reduce students leaving secondary schooling without finishing.

Promotion of Tolerance and Enforcing Competence action plan- This plan focuses on educating youth about the history of Germany and to calm the far right-wing initiatives growing within Germany

Objectives for these action plans are: promotion of local action plans to reduce discrimination, create projects to combat right wing extremists and to provide consulting services for effected youth.

Program XENOS- This focuses on youth discrimination within the public sector but also within the workplace. These programs would involve youth entering the workforce and hopes to achieve reduced discrimination in the hiring processes for new jobs.

Federal Youth Games- These were started in schools to encourage long term interest in sports and to increase youth physical activities.

(Country Youth Policy, 2014)

Ever since World War II there has been a rivalry in Germany, between the communist supporters and the westernized democracy supporters. This has been seen in many different ways over the years such as the giant wall in Berlin separating the East and West parts of the country. In 2014 the two sides still represented the two parts of Germany, thus the government pours millions in tax payer’s money into the city even though their economy is failing and population is falling. It cost West Germany 6 billion dollars in 2013 to keep Berlin’s economy running (Berlin, 2014). Having such a high tension within a single city shows the larger political rivalry between West and East Germany. Although the power has shifted towards West Germany and democracy, this has just further stirred the building right-wing communist supporters of East Germany.

With the internal rivalry between east and west being relatively quit over the past 10 years the sparks of civil revolt are beginning to fly. Mainly over the open boarder policies that Chancellor Angela Merkel has allowed in Germany. The result of Angela’s decision has been a giant influx of foreign refugees from countries that have dangerous radicals living within, such as Libya, Syria, and Iraq. Germany already accepts hundreds of thousands of immigrants every year and coupled with the recent terrorist attacks, the civilians of Germany have begun to revolt. They are currently doing so peacefully by voting against the current government in power but recently have been getting more radical as the situation of security has not changed (The Guardian, 2015). The current number of refugees in the past year is over 1 million and the time it takes to enter legally into Germany has been reduced to 3 months making it one of the fastest entry points into the EU (Connelly, 2015).

Along with the split of Germany there has been actions carried out by both sides, becoming terrorism. In German history 2 groups have been the top players in the terrorism scene, mostly from the far right-wing group “Red Army Faction” and foreign Islamic groups that do not agree with the “Westernization” of Germany. Both are known for multiple bombings and kidnappings over the years, although the Islamic groups are less organized and without a specific name, they still think along the lines of the Red Army Faction (Germany Attacks, 2016). The Red Army is a much older group stemming from WWII with very right-wing ideals, but have been inactive since the late 80’s. Recently it seems there is major risk from the growing Islamic population and their support for the far right-wing ideals (Germany Boosts, 2016).

Currently Germany is a country that has followed the understanding that women stay at home and men go off to the workforce. Obviously that is no longer true for the western half of the world and is changing throughout the globe. Thus Germany will need to change their understanding of women’s role in society, because women are taking roles of power and they will not allow the current wage and equality gap continue. The only reason Germany has kept this way of life for so long is the laws and regulation preventing the public of finding out actually how big the gap is. Thus in the past 10 years Germany has worked with the UN and together have implemented laws to encourage the further rise in women in the workforce. For example there was a recent quota put upon companies to have a certain amount of “qualified” women sitting on each board. Some other important acts may include:

Law on Family Care Leave 2011 – This is forcing the hand of companies to allow employees to take up to 24 months off for family care reasons and must not count that towards vacation days (FPfZG, 2011).

General Equal Treatment Act 2006 (Amended in 2013)- This act covers how companies do their hiring process and the treatment in the workplace once hired, thus meaning no harassment, no stereotyping, and allowing fair access to all resources and training (AGG, 2006).

Germany is home to Europe’s largest economy and the fifth largest economy globally in regards to GDP at purchasing power parity of $3.841 trillion USD ($3.358 trillion in nominal GDP) (World Factbook, 2016). Germany has only seen negative growth in GDP in one year since 2000 and this was in 2009 as a result of the global financial crisis. Germany’s GDP grew at a rate of 1.7% in 2015 which is slightly higher than the average of 1.54% growth of the last 5 years (World Bank, 2016). This increase could be in part explained by in 2015, German exports as a percentage of the GDP grew to the highest it has been since 2000 climbing 16.1% in total to the high of 46.9% (World Bank, 2016). The informal economy in Germany amounts for 12.2% of the GDP of the formal economy in 2014 (Deutsche Welle, 2016).

Germany had an inflation rate of 0.65% in 2015 ranking it the 6th lowest inflation rate in the world (Statbureau, 2016). The inflation rate has been on a downward trend in the past 10 years with brief periods of deflation in 2014 and 2016. See figure 1 below which shows inflation rates in Germany over the past 10 years.

Germany has a minimum wage that was introduced in 2015 of 8.50 euro/hour in attempt to create a basic standard of living for all citizens (DGB, 2016). However, some groups are exempt from this minimum wage like apprentices, and trainees. Wage growth has been a result of this marking 2015 and onward the highest wage growth has been in 10 years (Trading Economics, 2016). See figure 2 below for past wage growth in Germany.

Germany being a part of the European Union is a major factor in its economic situation in 2016. Major trading partners with Germany consist of large economic players within their economic union as well as two other major economies. Table 1 below shows the nations which do the most trade with Germany.

Uncertainty is at large in the economic situation of Germany moving forward from the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Being the destination of 7.5% of exports and 4.2% of imports, Brexit is expected to result in 0.5% negative growth in GDP for Germany in 2016 (Marketline, 21).

The German economy is highly skilled and this is shown with industry and services comprising of 99.3% of the economy in terms of nominal GDP (World Factbook, 2016). Germany sits amongst the world’s largest producers of iron, steel, machinery, vehicles, food and beverages, and electronics (World Factbook, 2016). Main products in the agricultural sector include milk, beef, pork, and cereals (Marketline, 59). See Table 2 below for a breakdown of primary economic sectors size in Germany.

Germany had an estimated total labor force of 45.04 million in 2015 (World Factbook, 2016). Germany is in a similar situation to other developed nations with a very low natural population increase leading to a slowly growing population in the past decade. However, 2015 and 2016 this growth will drastically increase due to the immigration of asylum seekers (approximately 87% of Syrian’s seeking asylum successfully win in Germany resulting in over 500,000 immigrants in 2015 (highest number of accepted asylum seekers of all European nations) (Faiola A. 2015). Many of the immigrants arriving have a language barrier between the native German language and could create a unique economic situation moving forward in Germany.

The Gender Inequality Index (GII) is used the determine the level of inequality between sexes within a nation. Germany has a 0.041 GII and this is ranked 3rd in the world behind only Slovenia, and Switzerland (UNDP, 2015). Although ranked third in the world inequalities still exist. The labor force in Germany in recent years has lessened the gap between gender participation in the workplace however, it is still male dominated with only 45% being female (World Factbook, 2016).

Since 2008 males have had a larger unemployment rate than females in Germany. (World Bank, 2016) See table 3 below which shows the unemployment rate between genders from 2004-2008.

Many incentives exist for couples with a single worker which contribute to lack of female participation in the workplace such as free health insurance for a spouse who is not working, and tax benefits for a single income stream (Marketline, 32). Another disproportion based on gender in the workplace is the difference of total working hours in a week. Women in Germany work more part time jobs than in other OECD nations with 37.6% of German women working part time compared to 23.4% of OECD nations (Marketline, 31).

The age demographics of Germany indicates that 23% of the population consists of youth of the age 24 or less and that 51.8% of the population (youth and elderly) is dependent on others (World Factbook, 2016). Germany has an income gap with the lowest 10% of earners own 3.6% of the wealth resulting in 15.5% of people living below the poverty line (earning less than $2 US per day) (World Factbook, 2016). UNICEF defines child poverty rate as the percentage of children who live in a home which earns less than 50% of the nation’s median income. Germany has a child poverty rate of 8.5% (UNICEF, 2012). In Germany, 75.3% of the total population lived in urban areas in 2015 and the nation has an urbanization rate of 0.16% (percentage change from rural to urban residence) (World Factbook, 2016). Germany has an overall population of 80 million composed of the third highest median age in the world at 46.8 years (World Factbook, 2016). The youth population (15-24 years) is 8.25 million with the lowest youth unemployment rate in Europe of 7.7% in 2014 (World Factbook, 2016). The total unemployment rate in Germany is 4.8% (World Factbook, 2016).

Germany has seemed to manage their youth unemployment rate with their longstanding apprenticeship program for high school graduates as an alternative to an academic study in the pursuit of a career. This apprenticeship program is a dual system working with colleges and companies to provide training for jobs like mechanics, bakers, and carpenters. The program attracts 60% of high school graduates and has over a 90% completion rate being a major contributor for the highly skilled work force found in Germany (Morning Edition, 2012). In 2014 Germany had a labor force educated with a tertiary education at 27% of its total labor force (World Bank, 2016). This tertiary education is heavily funded by the state resulting in very low tuition rates for both domestic students and international students in Germany.

Germany has a goal to host 350,000 international students by 2020 and grew approximately 7% from 2013 to 2014 (ICEF Monitor, June 2015). This educational system is in place to encourage the migration of skilled professionals to Germany to meet the growing demand with reducing population growth rates.

Germany has 16 federal states which have a level of sovereignty independent from the federal government level. 3 of these states are city states (Berlin, Hamburg, and Bremen) and the last 13 are more regional areas. The country has two types of tertiary education with Universities and Hochschules. The system can be compared to the Canadian system of Colleges and Universities with more professional studies (lawyers, doctors, etc) taking place at the Universities and other more technical studies at Hochschules (however Hocschules can also give Bachelors and Master’s degrees like Universities). Germany is home to over 380 universities and has over 17,000 programmes available to study (Studying In Germany, 2016). Table 2 below compares 20 of the top German institutions based on their location and program availability. The information for the table was gathered from the school’s individual website which lists available programs.