After the stagnation in 2005, payment in German workshops slightly increased in 2006. The Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs indicates an increase in average monthly payment by 2.01 Euros from 154.69 Euros to 156.70 Euros. This is an increase of 1.3 percent compared to the previous year. The average values were calculated on the basis of the number of all persons, including those in the workshops’ vocational training sections, for whom the federal government has reimbursed contributions to the pension fund. Declines were only recorded in Hamburg (-0.7 percent) and in the Saarland (-0.2 percent). In all other states, payment increased by up to 6.2 percent (Berlin).

The payment that disabled people in workshops receive is in the legal sense no ordinary salary, because the legal status of workshop employees is not that of an ordinary employee. They have an employee-like legal status, meaning they are entitled to most of the rights of an employee, but they do not have the same duties. This employee-like status means that their payment is also no normal salary. German workshops are bound to pass on at least 70 percent of their gains to the disabled persons who work for them. This is why the monthly payment can vary wildly, depending on how the economical situation in the workshop’s region is.