Berlin. Christiane Schönefeld has accepted the Federal Government's appointment to head the Minimum Wage Commission and assumed office on February 13, 2023.The qualified lawyer has held various leadership positions at the Federal Employment Agency (BA). She was initially Director of the Duisburg Employment Office, Vice President of the North Rhine-Westphalia State Employment Office from 1999 to 2004, and Chair of the Management Board of the BA's North Rhine-Westphalia Regional Directorate from 2004 to 2019. From 2019 to September 2022, she was a member of the Federal Employment Agency's Executive Board and headed the Human Resources, Finance, and Controlling departments. She was also a member of the "Growth, Structural Change, and Employment" Commission established by the Federal Government in 2018.
Christiane Schönefeld succeeds Jan Zilius, who chaired the Minimum Wage Commission since June 2015 and is stepping down from it at his own request. The independent Minimum Wage Commission is reappointed every five years. In addition to the chair, it consists of six permanent voting members, three of whom belong to employers' associations and three to trade unions. The commission also includes two advisory members from academia.The commission is legally mandated to decide on the adjustment of the statutory minimum wage every two years and to submit an evaluation report to the Federal Government on the effects of the minimum wage on employee protection, competitive conditions, employment, and productivity.