Meinhold formula
The Meinhold formula refers to the distribution policy formula developed by the economist Helmut Meinhold at the beginning of the 1960s, a “double adjustment of wages” to the overall economic productivity and price development.
As a mediator in a wage dispute between IG Metall and the employers' association of the iron and steel industry, he proposed in 1965 as a guideline for the wage agreement that wage increases should be based on real macroeconomic productivity gains on the one hand, and according to the rate of increase in the cost of living on the other .
In doing so, Meinhold questioned the link between the growth of nominal wages and increases in productivity (“simple productivity rule”) , which had been advocated by the Advisory Council on Macroeconomic Development (SVR). He argued that price increases also had to be taken into account in order to maintain the distribution relationships. This “modified productivity rule” was later adopted by the SVR as a distribution-neutral wage formula. What remained unsatisfactory for the trade unions , however, was the fact that this rule laid down the status quo in terms of distribution policy and ignored their redistribution claims.
See also
literature
- Helmut Meinhold: The distribution of income as an economic and socio-political problem . In: Helmut Arndt (Ed.): Wage Policy and Income Distribution . Berlin 1969.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Helmut Meinhold: "The dilemma of our wage policy". In: "Die Zeit" from December 17, 1965.