Of the announcements made by the former Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, about major changes for the care sector, which were to be created with the Care Reform 2022, the only essential part that actually remains is the standard wage agreement.

From the 1st of September 2022, all care workers in homes and care services will be subject to a standard wage agreement, with the aim of paying care workers better. Otherwise, the health insurance funds will no longer pay the companies. Since it was not possible to agree on a uniform wage agreement, companies can now choose one of numerous wage agreements or pay at the regional wage level. However, the financing of the higher wages must have somehow fallen by the wayside in all the planning, because despite the noble intention of "we relieve those in need of care and their families", the patients/residents, or their relatives, will have to pay a large part themselves. For one thing, the health insurance contributions will increase and, above all, the personal contribution for personal care (e.g. showering) has not been adjusted in percentage terms to that of the long-term care insurance, which is why it will increase significantly for the person concerned. And this is in spite of the fact that many people can hardly afford a care service anyway, not to mention a place in a home, because social insurance in Germany only rarely covers the personal contribution for personal care, and only after it has been checked several times that all other sources of money have been exhausted.
The care workers, on the other hand, are looking forward to the 1st of September in tense uncertainty, because they do not know by how much exactly their wages will increase. What is rumoured among some colleagues, however, is that their company has opted for a wage agreement in which the wage classification, apart from qualifications and working hours in the nursing profession, will also be based on the assessment of individual performance, by the supervisor. This means that you will be graded like in school, and those who, for example, have often stepped in and were not often sick, will get more points in the area of special commitment. And this evaluation by the supervisor then decides on the classification in the wage agreement and thus on the money in the account at the end of the month and the bread on the plate the next month. This is yet another means of pressure for companies to better exploit their employees and to push them to work more, to play them off against each other and to divide them. This "little reform" is also only a drop in the ocean and does not mean a serious improvement of the care system, as this example shows once again.