Special Payments: Who Gets Them and to What Extent?

The receipt of special payments and their amount varies greatly with individual and company characteristics as well as with the level of the hourly wage. There are large di~erences between women and men, between East and West Germany, and de-pending on company size and sector. Special payments are rare in the low-wage sector and among marginal employees and, those that exist are very low. Looking at the 10% of employees with the highest hourly wages, special payments are wide-spread and by far the highest, especially among West German men.