TRANSFORMATIONS IN WORK 247
per se in the GDR given the subsidization of basic food items, the fre-
quent shortages in consumer goods, and the great importance of infor-
mal “ties” when it came to be able to make purchases. Even the softening
of the egalitarian wage structure through diff erent types of wage bonus
systems from the 1970s onward had only a minimal eff ect. In the Fed-
eral Republic before and after reunifi cation, however, the development
of wages is and has been a key indicator of workers’ standards of living.
While the growth in annual gross income was still about 8.5 percent on
average in 1980, the yearly growth rates since the mid-1990s have in-
creased at small intervals compared to previous decades (between 0.5
percent and 4 percent, with zero or negative “growth” in 1997, 2003,
2005, and 2009). There were even phases when annual net real incomes
shrank noticeably: they decreased by about 7 percent across the country
between 1993 and 1998 alone, slumping again between 2004 and 2009,
and they have been dropping since 2011 yet again.^10 The clear increase in
part-time work over the last two decades is undoubtedly partially respon-
sible for this development. In and of itself, this has been part of a long-
term trend that had assumed considerable proportions in Germany since
the mid-1930s, but it has clearly been gaining speed since the beginning
of the 1990s.^11 The rapid rise of half-day shifts and fl exible working hours
has led to a surge in part-time employment from 2.6 million (1991) to 3.5
million (1998) and then 5 million (2011). These fi gures also refl ect the
improved options for mothers and fathers to combine career and family.
Simultaneously, though, these numbers are increasingly indicative of a
trend toward more precarious employment situations. Although the av-
erage number of real working hours per week under full-time employees
decreased in the 1980s, high structural unemployment and the fear of
being laid off or fi red contributed greatly to an increase in working time
after reunifi cation, from 39.7 hours in 1995 to 40.4 hours in 2008.^12
The Industrial Sector
From Fordism to Toyotism:
Rationalization on the March in the WestThe pressure on company executives to rationalize was particularly de-
pendent on the unemployment rate, as well as the level of the personnel
costs. As early as the 1950s and 1960s, full employment and rising wage
costs generated an enormous amount of pressure in this regard. This has
only further increased since the 1970s, accompanied by the rapid global-
ization of foreign trade and capital fl ows, the accelerated internationaliza-
tion of large corporations, and the tougher competition between national