Before the Bundesrat meets to discuss the Wage Loyalty Act, the employer association BDA is already railing against bureaucracy. “Even now the bureaucratic requirements for public tenders are far too high for most companies” BDA president Rainer Dulger told Welt in the Friday issue. ”In the future it will become even less attractive to pursue federal contracts. This anti‑growth law, issued at a time of economic strain, sends a disastrous signal of excessive state control and deters potential investors”.
A survey commissioned by the BDA and carried out by the opinion‑research institute Forsa found that 75 percent of the businesses surveyed consider the public‑tender requirements to be too burdensome. Of the 1,000 companies sampled, 43 percent are even weighing whether they will stop applying for public contracts entirely.
The Wage Loyalty Act (TTG), adopted by the Bundestag at the end of February 2026, obliges firms that carry out federal public contracts worth more than €50,000 to adhere to collective‑agreement standards for wages, holiday entitlement and working hours. The same standards apply to any subcontractors engaged. Violations may lead to exclusion from future awardings. Delivery contracts and Bundeswehr orders are exempt from this regulation. The Bundesrat is scheduled to debate the law on Friday.
