BRIE Working Paper 2022-01 Automation and the Future of Work in Germany:

Between the mid 1990s and the mid 2010s, the share of working adults in middle-skill occupations fell more in Germany than the OECD average while the share of working adults in high-skill jobs increased at about the same pace in both Germany and the OECD. [...] In the race between the demand for workers with the skills and education required by SBTC and the supply of such workers, demand has been winning, driving up both the wages and the employment of workers with the requisite skills. [...] Wage Inequality and the Minimum Wage In 2015 an hourly minimum wage of 8.50 euros, about 48% of the median wage, was introduced to increase wages at the bottom of the wage distribution and to contain the growth of lower-tail wage inequality. [...] The estimates are based on assumptions about the pace and extent of automation and about the sources and growth of labor demand across occupations, sectors and regions pre the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020. [...] In summary, both existing and ongoing research indicate that routine-biased automation and the polarization of employment, along with rising returns to tertiary education, will continue in Germany, resulting in more job opportunities for those at the top of the education and wage distribution and the hollowing-out of the middle and lower-ends of the distribution.