EU Sources - ECB indicates negotiated wage growth of 2.7% in 2026 - February 28, 2026

The European Central Bank (ECB) wage tracker, which covers active collective agreements, indicates negotiated wage growth with smoothed one-off payments of 3.2% in 2025 (based on a coverage of 49.9% of employees in participating countries) and 2.4% in 2026 (based on a coverage of 33.1%). Compared with the December 2025 data release, the ECB wage tracker was revised up by 0.1 percentage points for 2026. The ECB wage tracker with unsmoothed one-off payments indicates negotiated wage growth of 3.0% in 2025 and 2.7% in 2026. The wage tracker excluding one-off payments indicates an easing of negotiated wage growth from 3.9% in 2025 to 2.7% in 2026 (revised up by 0.1 percentage points for 2026).

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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.