Stories

Wed, 24 Jun 2026

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 The legal fight to get equal pay for Germany's disabled workers

A test case is seeking the minimum wage for 300,000 disabled people who currently get paid less.

* A court case in Germany, brought by a 57-year-old man with disabilities, could have implications for hundreds of thousands of disabled people who work in sheltered workshops.
* The workshops employ around 300,000 disabled people and produce goods for well-known companies, but pay them less than the minimum wage.
* Disabled people in these workshops are technically not employees and therefore do not receive employee benefits or rights.
* The court case argues that disabled workers should be paid the minimum wage and have the same employment rights as non-disabled workers.
* Critics of the sheltered workshop system argue that it can be exploitative and hold back disabled workers from entering the mainstream workforce.
* However, some managers of sheltered workshops defend the system, saying that it provides a supportive environment for workers who may struggle in the outside world.
* The court case is expected to take at least a year to reach a decision.