The cost competitiveness of the country has strengthened since 2020. Swedish wage increases have kept pace with Germany at the same time as the krona has weakened and industrial productivity has increased more than in most other countries. This is shown by a new analysis from the Mediation Institute. Wages are generally strongly linked to industry negotiations. The negotiations are determined by a number of factors, but the development of international industrial wages, especially in Germany, is one of them. Looking at the average wage, industrial wages in Germany and Sweden are developing similar. For example, wages rose by 17% between July 2019 and July 2024 in both Germany and Sweden. Since the rate of inflation has also been roughly the same in Germany and Sweden in recent years, real wages for employees in the German and Swedish manufacturing industry have also developed almost identically in recent years.
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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.
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