Inflation: That's how much inflation eats from your salary - and that's how much you have to earn to make up for it
Created: 04/28/2022, 13:35
Prices are rising in almost every area of life.
But the salary remains unchanged for most consumers.
© Imago/Wolfgang Maria Weber
The cost of living in Germany is increasing all the time, but what most people don't see is their salary.
But how much more would one have to earn to offset inflation.
An overview.
Munich/Wiesbaden - The prices are exploding - month after month and faster and faster.
Gas, electricity, fuel, vegetables, fruit, meat, shoes, electronics and frying oil - there is hardly a product that has not become more expensive.
Every consumer feels that: At the end of the month there is less and less left in the wallet.
But what is the amount?
Inflation: Bakers, train drivers and Co. would have to earn that much more in order not to lose purchasing power
This can be calculated if you know what the current gross salary is and when the last salary increase was.
If you subtract the inflation rate that the Federal Statistical Office announces every month, you can see how high the loss of purchasing power is.
If you then add this amount to the gross salary, it becomes clear how much you would currently have to earn in order to be able to afford as much as at the time of the last salary increase (see examples in the table).
The table shows how big the loss of purchasing power really is for individual occupational groups.
© Destatis
Inflation: Low-income families suffer the most
But of course, as with every statistic, the calculation could be completely different individually.
Because the size of the hole that inflation tears into your wallet depends very much on how full your personal shopping basket is.
A study by the Hans Böckler Foundation, for example, found that low-income families suffer the most from inflation.
While shopping baskets were an average of 7.3 percent more expensive in March than a year ago, they had to pay 7.9 percent more because basic necessities account for more of the spending of poorer households.
For high-income singles, on the other hand, inflation is “only” 6.0 percent.
Some professional groups can still expect improvements in their financial situation this year, as collective bargaining is pending.
IG Metall is currently calling for a salary increase of 8.2 percent for employees in the steel industry.
Negotiations for the metal and electrical industry (3.8 million employees) follow in September and then in December for the public sector (federal and local governments, 2.7 million employees).