As inflation pushes up prices, wages are lagging behind.
(Photo: dpa)
The high inflation leads to a significant decline in real wages in Germany. Nominal wages increased significantly in the first quarter by 4.0 percent compared to the same month last year, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Monday. However, consumer prices increased much more strongly in the same period at 5.8 percent. This results in a real, price-adjusted drop in earnings of 1.8 percent. “Inflation thus more than consumed the increase in nominal wages in the first quarter of 2022,” the statisticians summarized the results. As a result, many employees have less purchasing power at their disposal.
Agreed wages also rose by an average of 4.0 percent in the first quarter. This includes collectively agreed basic salaries and special payments determined by collective agreements. The increase in the areas of “education and teaching” (plus 5.0 percent), “agriculture and forestry; fisheries” (plus 4.9 percent) and “public administration, defence; Social Security” (plus 4.6 percent).
In these areas, the corona bonuses, which both public employees in the federal states and most state and local civil servants received, were particularly noticeable.
The above-average wage development in the manufacturing industry of 4.8 percent can primarily be attributed to special payments, especially in the metal and electrical industry. In the construction industry (plus 4.7 percent), a corona premium was also paid at the beginning of the year. Below-average growth in negotiated wages, including special payments, was particularly evident in energy supply (plus 0.7 percent), financial and insurance services (plus 1.3 percent) and water supply and waste disposal (plus 1.9 percent).
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
After many years of boom, the real wages already dropped during the Corona crisis. Last year they fell by 0.1 percent due to rising consumer prices. In 2020, widespread short-time work during the pandemic and canceled jobs also led to a decline in real wages up 1.1 percent.
More: Six reasons for the high inflation – and what helps against it