Collective wage employees have a clear plus this year: Their wages rise according to calculations of the trade union-related Institute for Economic and Social Sciences (WSI) by three percent and are thus well above the rate of inflation. Real wage growth is on average 1.6 per cent despite the economic downturn.
"For the macroeconomic development, the tariff policy proves once again as an important anchor of stability," said Thorsten Schulten, head of WSI.
The average pay increases in 2019 are at the same level as in the previous year. In the summer, the WSI had still forecast the largest increase in collective wage since the turn of the millennium, an overall 3.2 percent increase had predicted the Institute of the Hans Böckler Foundation. This value was not reached.
According to the Foundation 2019, a total of 20 million employees will receive pay increases. For eight million, therefore, new deals were made, while about twelve million benefit from the collective agreements agreed in previous years. Wage growth in new contracts was 2.5 percent below the previously agreed longer-term agreement of 3.3 percent.
Numerous important wage disputes will be pending in the upcoming collective bargaining round 2020, including in the metalworking and electronics industries as well as in public service at the federal and local levels. Verdi last asked for six percent more pay for civil servants. In the metal and electrical industry, Verdi negotiated high wage increases last year. The employers' association then threatened with the end of a collective agreement.