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 authority, was a drop in real wages. The statisticians put the price-adjusted drop in earnings at 4.4 percent. In the first quarter, 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, workers 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.
Federal Statistical Office – Inflation eats up higher wages – Economy
