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Shortage of money at the end of the month (symbolic photo): With every increase in prices, the purchasing power of your salary decreases
Photo: Thomas Trutschel / Photothek / Getty Images
Prices are increasing, month after month, and faster and faster.
Last autumn at the latest, many people noticed when energy suppliers sent out letters announcing rising tariffs for gas or electricity.
Such additional costs have now also reached many products that are produced in an energy-intensive manner or transported with expensive fuel.
In addition, there are delivery bottlenecks in many sectors, largely a collateral problem of the corona pandemic and now also the war in Ukraine.
It doesn't matter whether it's cars, frying oil, electronics - what is rare has to be paid for more expensively.
And then make other products more expensive.
The spiral is turning, prices are rising, many are feeling it. But how much money are you missing exactly?
You can easily find out with this calculator.
You only need to know two things: Your current gross salary and the month in which you last got a raise.
Then our calculator will show you how high the salary would have to be in order
to buy the same things at
today's prices as at the time of the salary increase.
How does this work?
The Federal Statistical Office collects data every month on how much the prices for products and services are rising and thus inflation.
With every increase in prices, the purchasing power of a salary, which initially remains unchanged, decreases by exactly this percentage.
The calculator calculates how much that is in euros and cents and adds it to the salary.
And that's for every month since your boss last said: OK, then you'll get more.
As is the case with generalized data: Of course, it can turn out completely differently on an individual basis.
The calculation of the price increase is based on an imaginary shopping basket, i.e. a selection of products and services whose prices are monitored.
The federal statisticians gave a lot of thought to the composition of the basket of goods, and the basket of goods is considered representative.
However, your personal
shopping cart may look different.
Anyone who rents particularly cheaply on the basis of an old contract, who does not have a car and consequently does not buy any fuel, will get off cheaper, for example.
Anyone who commutes to work an above-average distance on the motorway, lives in an uninsulated old building or insists on the latest mobile phone every year is more affected by the price increase than the statistics show.
Material for collective bargaining
Of course, such developments cannot be continuously compensated for by corresponding salary increases – this calculator is not intended to suggest that at all.
He only shows in relation to his own salary how purchasing power is dwindling.
But: In the coming months, exactly such questions will play a role in collective bargaining between unions and employers' associations, in discussions between employees and bosses.
The pressure will increase to raise wages.
This is understandable on an individual basis, but could further accelerate the price spiral if companies recoup the costs for higher salaries through product prices.
Incidentally, there is one area that reacts quite precisely to inflation: Anyone who has an apartment with an index lease has to endure increases in the magnitude of inflation up to once a year.
