In the current year there were also high wage agreements in large industrial sectors such as the chemical or metal and electrical industry.
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Berlin Tariff employees have to accept a loss of purchasing power this year, which is unprecedented in the Federal Republic. Admittedly, negotiated wages rose by an average of 2.7 percent compared to the previous year. Due to the sharp rise in prices, real wages are expected to fall by 4.7 percent.
This emerges from the collective bargaining balance of the Institute for Economic and Social Sciences (WSI), which belongs to the Hans Böckler Foundation, which is close to the trade union. The head of the WSI collective bargaining archive, Thorsten Schulten, says: “The enormous increase in inflation poses completely new challenges for collective bargaining policy, to which it can only react with a certain time lag.”
The Düsseldorf researchers included agreements for around 7.4 million employees in their provisional wage balance that were agreed between January and the end of November. However, wage increases from earlier agreements that only took effect in the current year were also taken into account. Another twelve million employees benefited from this. With the price increase, the WSI used the consumer price development for the first eleven months of this year as a basis.
It is true that in the current year there were high wage agreements in large industrial sectors such as chemicals or metal and electrical engineering. In both cases, the agreed tariff increases and inflation premiums will not be due until next year, so they are not yet included in the balance sheet. Rather, this is still characterized by numerous corona crisis deals, in which the unions had practiced wage restraint.
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In the coming year, however, the collective wage development should go up significantly, Schulten expects. The wages in the metal and electrical industry will rise by 5.2 percent from June. In the chemical-pharmaceutical industry, wages and salaries will be increased by 3.25 percent in January. In addition, the first tranches of the inflation premium totaling EUR 3,000 will be paid in both sectors.
Which indicates a reversal
However, the demands for collective bargaining rounds that are due next year also point to rising wage dynamics. For example, Verdi and the civil service association are demanding 10.5 percent more money for the approximately 2.5 million federal and local employees, but at least 500 euros. Due to the minimum amount, the demand even amounts to almost 15 percent on average. Negotiations begin on January 24th.
Verdi is also demanding a pay increase of 15 percent for Deutsche Post employees. For the upcoming negotiations for employees in the food industry, the hospitality industry, the confectionery industry, breweries and the food trade, the main board of the Food, Enjoyment and Restaurants Union (NGG) has recommended a requirement of “ten percent plus X”.
In spite of the sharp rise in prices in some sectors, the purchasing power of at least some employees was secured in the year that was drawing to a close. This applies above all to classic low-wage sectors such as the bakery trade, the hospitality industry, building cleaning and security services, where, in anticipation of the increase in the statutory minimum wage to twelve euros, sometimes sharp tariff increases for lower wage groups have been agreed, writes the WSI.
>> Read here: Head of the Civil Servants Association on the 15 percent collective bargaining demand: “The cost of living has risen dramatically“
The loss in real wages that collectively agreed employees have to accept this year is the second in a row. The average wage increase of 2.7 percent is again significantly higher than in the Corona years, but still below the values of the boom years 2018 and 2019, when wages rose by an average of three and 2.9 percent, respectively.
More: Salary increase despite the crisis? This is how you get more out of 2023