At the ARD talk “Hard but fair”, a serious problem is discussed: Poverty despite work. A single mother receives insensitive suggestions.
The general election is getting closer and the vaccination campaign is slowly picking up speed. This is also reflected in the selection of topics for the current broadcast of the ARD talk “Hart aber fair”, which for once was not about the corona pandemic, but about a topic that couldn’t be more urgent: increasing social inequality and that empty promises of advancement. Because even in Germany, one of the richest countries in the world, people have to live in poverty. Even though they work full time.
The single mother Djamila Kordus from Berlin tells how hard it is in the ARD program by and with Frank Plasberg. The trained retail saleswoman, who works in the logistics department of a large online retailer, has to hand her daughter over to the after-school care center at six in the morning so that she can get to work on time and then pick her up ten hours later if things go well. After work, household chores and help with homework, she falls tired to bed only to get up at five in the morning the next day. On the third of the month there is still nothing left in your account. “Everything is getting more expensive, only the wages are not adjusted,” complains Kordus rightly.
“Hard but fair” (ARD): Lost my job due to Corona – Hartz 4 is not an alternative
She lost the mini job she still had before Corona because her daughter’s after-school care center was closed, she tells Frank Plasberg. Like so many low-wage earners, the corona pandemic hits them particularly hard. Because of the profits that were made by online retailers in the corona pandemic, nothing was left at Kordus. Hartz 4 is still “out of the question” for them. She is also a “role model for her child.” An attitude for which the warehouse clerk is repeatedly praised by the other guests during the ARD program “Hart aber fair”. She can’t buy anything from it.
Kordus is not an isolated case, reports the journalist Julia Friedrichs. For her book “Working Class” she accompanied families from different backgrounds for over a year: an unskilled underground cleaner, a music school teacher and an office worker. What do these people have in common, asks Frank Plasberg, apart from the fact that they earn too little? “That they believed in the great promise of the Federal Republic (…) that one can build prosperity through work”.
| Guest at Hart but fair with Frank Plasberg | function |
|---|---|
| Hubertus Heil | Federal Minister for Labor and Social Affairs (SPD) |
| Arndt Kirchhoff | managing partner of the Kirchhoff Group; President of the state association of business associations in North Rhine-Westphalia |
| Julia Friedrichs | Journalist and filmmaker; Book Author (Working Class) |
| Djamila Kordus | single mother |
| Lencke Wischhusen | Group leader in the Bremen citizenship and member of the FDP federal executive committee |
Poor despite work – single mother receives perfidious suggestions on “Hart aber fair” (ARD)
It has not come true for any of the three families. Even the very well-trained couple of music school teachers got into financial hardship due to the Corona crisis. Because they are only paid for given hours. “If they are sick (…) when it is school holidays, they get nothing.” This also applies to a global pandemic. So they had to take a mini job. No longer a rarity in Germany. The number of so-called multi-jobbers has doubled to 3.5 million since 2003, as Plasberg emphasized in the ARD Talk. The entrepreneur and managing partner of the Kirchhoff Group, Arndt Kirchhoff, still does not see himself and his colleagues in the business as having an obligation. Instead, he blames politics and calls for better and more flexible childcare.
The entrepreneur suggests that the single mother take further training. Then things would look better with the ascent too. A suggestion that couldn’t be more perfidious given the workload that the single mother previously reported. Lencke Wischhusen, the parliamentary group leader in the Bremen citizenship and member of the FDP federal executive committee, also has a great idea: The single mother Djamila Kordus should simply apply to a medium-sized company. They would pay a lot better.
“Hard but fair” (ARD): Hubertus Heil in election campaign mode – “Question of dignity and decency”
The Federal Minister for Labor and Social Affairs Hubertus Heil is campaigning for “Hart aber fair” and repeatedly emphasizes how important it is that people get “a decent wage” for their work. That is “a question of dignity and decency”. Whereby one wonders why the SPD politician only came up with the idea shortly before the federal election in 2021 that the minimum wage had to be raised to 12 euros. After all, he tries not to downplay Ms. Kordus’ hard life and gives her honest respect for her work.
Hard but fair in the ARD media library
Missed the program? In the ARD media library you can check out the program “Hart aber fair” from Monday, May 10th, 2021.
When at the end of the program Frank Plasberg asked the group which job they would like to do for a day for a fictitious minimum wage of 12 euros, the FDP politician Lencke Wischhusen answers in all seriousness that she “would like to” clean properly to go. The entrepreneur Kirchhoff would immediately take over the work of Ms. Kordus. Djamila Kordus can only dream of an hourly wage of 12 euros. (Bettina Schuler)
