The collectively agreed wages in the Netherlands saw the biggest increase in years this summer. However, workers’ purchasing power still declined as prices increased much more. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), this was the first time since it started tracking these figures in 1973 that collectively negotiated wages lagged so far behind inflation. On average, wages in the third quarter were 3.4% higher than in the same period last year. That is the largest increase since the first quarter of 2009. However, in the third quarter, consumer prices were 12.3% higher than a year ago. So that real wages in the Netherlands dropped by almost 9%.
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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.