Less money in your pocket: High inflation eats up wage increases
Created: 08/29/2022, 10:23 am
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
Although wages are rising in Germany, they continue to lag behind inflation.
As a result, many workers have less money in their pockets despite a higher salary.
Wiesbaden – Due to high inflation, Germany's employees have less money in their pockets despite wage increases.
Wages, including special payments, were 2.9 percent higher in the second quarter of 2022 than a year earlier, as calculated by the Federal Statistical Office.
However, because consumer prices rose by 7.6 percent during this period, the bottom line, according to the Wiesbaden authorities on Monday, was a drop in real wages.
Inflation: Declining earnings for employed people – despite wage increases
The statisticians put the price-adjusted drop in earnings at 4.4 percent.
In the first quarter of the current year, real wages fell by 1.8 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
Now the high rate of inflation has once again more than eaten up the increase in nominal wages.
Even in the years 2020 and 2021, which were shaped by the corona pandemic, employees had to accept real wage losses after many years of upswing.
In the current year, inflation has remained stubbornly above the seven percent mark for months, even if there has recently been some relaxation thanks to government relief.
However, inflation in Germany could rise again in autumn.
Expert: "Additional relief measures necessary"
For the second year in a row, many employees are threatened with a loss of real wages, explained the head of the WSI collective bargaining archive, Thorsten Schulten.
The expert does not expect that inflation can be offset by wage increases.
“In view of the completely uncertain development of the Ukraine war and its economic consequences, collective bargaining alone in many sectors is unable to compensate for the employees' loss of purchasing power.
Additional relief measures by the state are necessary here,” said Schulten.
(lma/dpa)