210 WINFRIED SÜß
that a worker became ill (1969), for example, removed one of the most
symbolic diff erences between blue and white collar professions. Clear
progress was also made in terms of the social integration of disabled peo-
ple: around four million physically and mentally disabled individuals saw
a noticeable increase in their social participation opportunities thanks to
the expansion of social services and infrastructure institutions as well as
the redefi nition of their social rights. Similarly, the introduction of a min-
imum income pension in 1972 counteracted some of the gender-specifi c
wage discrimination that had aff ected many women. Nonetheless, other
disadvantages for women that stemmed from the still dominant strong
male breadwinner model persisted. Very little was done within the sys-
tem to foster the integration of foreign workers, who constituted about 10
percent of the employed population in 1974.
The precise eff ects of the retrenchment of the West German welfare state
that began in 1975 on social inequality are diffi cult to determine, especially
because important processes that impacted inequality were still ongoing.
The momentum driving professional upward mobility, for example, con-
tinued despite slumping economic data; sometimes it even accelerated
because the tertiarization of the economy brought about an “upward shift”
toward qualifi ed white collar jobs.^45 In contrast, however, the employment
histories of those in the branches of the production sector that were heavily
hit by industrial decline were much more discontinuous as more fl exibility
was required of the workforce. At the same time, a gap grew between
the more experienced and often younger core of the workforce and the
older and often less-skilled losers in this transformation process, who of-
ten found themselves facing unemployment or early retirement.^46
Despite the economic crisis and the restructuring of the welfare state
with the ad hoc retraction of some elements, the balancing and security
mechanisms of the West German system of taxes and social transfers
remained mostly intact. Although these cuts led to the relative impover-
ishment of the unemployed and those receiving social assistance, pen-
sioners were able to slightly improve their income position.^47 Inequality
among household net incomes—after taxes, social security contributions,
and social benefi ts had been deducted—increased much later than it did
for market-dependent incomes. This indicates that, at least at fi rst, the
sustainability of the social safety net suff ered only slightly as the crisis
set in. It was not until the mid-1980s and especially the 1990s that the
leveling eff ects of the tax and transfer system waned.^48 The tight link
between contributions and benefi ts in the German welfare state tradition
off ers one plausible explanation for this because the affl uence acquired
during the boom years thus came back to the recipients of pensions and
unemployment support when the economic crisis hit.