Germany’s Sheltered Workshops Pay Workers Just €230 a Month — and a Legal Challenge Could Change That
Published on 07/30/2026 at 02:43 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
A legal battle brewing in the German city of Münster is putting the country’s decades-old system of paying disabled workers a fraction of the minimum wage under the microscope. Jürgen Linnemann, an employee at the Freckenhorster Werkstätten, has taken his employer to the Arbeitsgericht Münster, demanding that he receive the statutory minimum wage like any other worker.
The case, filed in late July, strikes at the heart of a legal distinction that has long excluded roughly 300,000 people employed in Germany’s sheltered workshops — known as Werkstätten für behinderte Menschen (WfbM) — from standard labour protections. Because these workers are classified as “employee-like” rather than full employees, their employers are not required to pay the national minimum wage.
The result is a pay structure that leaves full-time workers earning an average of just €230 per month for a 35- to 40-hour week. That figure is cobbled together from three components: a base wage of €133, a work-promotion allowance of €52, and a performance bonus ranging from €1 to €150. The Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL), the regional authority that oversees the workshops involved in the Münster case, has so far declined to support demands for reform.
The dissatisfaction is widespread. A 2023 study commissioned by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) found that 67 percent of workshop employees surveyed were unhappy with their pay. The Werkstattrat Deutschland, a national representative body for sheltered-workshop employees, is calling for a minimum monthly income of €1,450 — or, alternatively, full integration into the minimum-wage system.
Reform is officially on the agenda. The BMAS is drafting a law to overhaul workshop pay, though no firm timeline for its release has been announced. The urgency is compounded by a missed regulatory deadline: the European Union’s Pay Transparency Directive was due to be transposed into German law by June 7, 2026, but the corresponding national legislation has yet to materialise.
In July 2026, the Bundeskabinett took other steps on labour policy. On July 22, it approved a National Action Plan to promote collective bargaining. A week later, on July 29, it amended the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, introducing minimum contract durations for first-time academic appointments. But the specific redesign of workshop pay remains a glaring gap in social policy.
Meanwhile, advocacy groups are raising alarms about separate structural changes in disability support. Caritas and the Bavarian regional working group CBP Bayern have pushed back against plans to move services for children and young people with disabilities under the umbrella of the SGB VIII, the social code governing child and youth welfare. They warn that the draft legislation risks dismantling well-established support structures and call for guaranteed individual participation rights and reliable funding for qualified staff at collectively bargained rates.
In a parallel development, Austria is strengthening the rights of people with disabilities. Starting September 1, 2026, individuals undergoing official assessments will have a legal right to bring a trusted person of their choice to the proceedings.
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