FNV wants wage increases up to 14%, €16 per hour minimum wage against inflation

The trade union FNV will demand wage increases between 5 and 14 percent in collective bargaining negotiations next year. It will also work for a minimum wage of 16 euros per hour, the union announced after consultations with its members, NOS and RTL Nieuws reports.

According to FNV, inflation is indeed lower this year than in 2022, but there is still a great deal of ground to cover to compensate for employees’ extra expenses on food, energy, and housing. “There is still an inflation gap that needs to be made up in many collective labor agreements. Although inflation has fallen in recent months, the damage is still there,” FNV vice-chairman Zakaria Boufangacha said.

Some sectors need wage increases more than others. “Therefore, the final demand may also differ per sector or organization,” Boufangacha said. Trade union CNV previously announced that it would work for wage increases of between 4 and 10 percent. It, too, said that organizations that gave high increases last year would see lower demands next year and vice versa.

A year ago, FNV demanded wage increases of between 12 and 14.5 percent, based on the inflation rate, which peaked at 14.5 percent in September. Inflation is now falling, with lower energy prices and food prices stabilizing.

Employers organization AWVN recently reported that the time of unprecedented wage increases appeared to be coming to an end. The average wage increase in the seven collective agreements concluded in August was 7.4 percent - still historically very high and also 0.1 percentage points higher than in July. A few months ago, however, the average wage increase was 8.2 percent. At that time, wages were rising even faster than inflation.

In recent months, president Klaas Knot of De Nederlandsche Bank repeatedly warned against too-high wage increases. Higher wages and purchasing power only push inflation higher, he warned in a roundtable discussion with parliament in July. “If we want to return to 2 percent inflation in a sustainable manner, we will also have to return to 2.5 to 3 percent wage inflation,” Knot said.