Wage increases leveling off; Down to 6.8% in first quarter

The massive wage increases seem to be leveling off. In the first quarter of this year, collective labor agreement wages were 6.8 percent higher than in the same quarter a year earlier, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported. That is slightly lower than the 6.9 percent wage increase in quarter four or 2023, which was the highest increase in 40 years.

In the first quarter, wages rose the most at the housing corporations with a 12.4 percent increase. The big increase was a catch-up. In the first quarter of 2023, wages in this sector, officially called “rent and trade of real estate,” only rose by 2.5 percent. Teachers (10.2 percent) and hospitality industry staff (10.1 percent) also saw big wage increases in the first quarter. Healthcare workers’ wages rose by 7.2 percent.

Corrected for inflation, the average collective labor agreement wages rose by 4.3 percent. It is only the second quarter in a row that the real wage increase has been positive. Before that, the exceptionally high inflation was higher than the wage increases in collective labor agreements.

The contractual wage costs - collective labor agreement wages plus employer premiums - increased by 6.9 percent in the first quarter of 2024. That is slightly higher than the wage increases because the employer’s premium for disability cover increased this year.