The average collective labor agreement wage increase in 2024 was the highest in more than forty years. The collective labor agreement wages were on average 6.6 percent higher than in 2023. That the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reported on Tuesday. The last time with a higher increase in average collective labor agreement wages was in 1982.
Wages also rose rapidly in 2023: an average of 6.1 percent compared to the previous year. At that time, the highest wage increases were still visible in the government, where employees improved by 7.2 percent.
This year, private companies and subsidized institutions led the way: both added 6.7 percent, while collective labor agreements in government increased 6.2 percent.
Inflation
It is not surprising that such high wage increases took place in 2023 and 2024. From 2022 onwards, the Netherlands was confronted with sky-high inflation rates at various times, as a result of which citizens saw their purchasing power decrease and many people experienced payment problems.
The biggest gainer this year was the real estate sector. There, collective labor agreement wages increased by no less than 12.4 percent. The catering industry, hairdressers, funeral companies and trade unions also saw collective labor agreements increase faster than other industries.
Striking detail: the wage increase was the smallest in the transport and storage sector (4.7 percent), while it was still the largest increase in 2023 at 8.5 percent.
The real collective labor agreement wage increase, where wages are adjusted for inflation, was around 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter of this year. “An exact figure cannot yet be given, because the inflation figure for the fourth quarter will be announced in January,” CBS said. The agency bases the provisional figures for 2024 on 98 percent of the collective labor agreements. Three quarters of employees in the Netherlands are covered by a collective labor agreement.
