The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) announced on Wednesday that wages rose significantly less in 2021 than in the previous year. In 2020, CBS still saw an average wage increase of 2.9 percent, in 2021 it was 2.1 percent.
Inflation
During the corona crisis, more and more moderate collective labor agreements were agreed. The figures from Statistics Netherlands show that wage developments are responding to the crisis with a delay. For example, wages rose slightly faster in the first half of last year than in the second half.
Meanwhile, the prices of petrol, gas and all kinds of groceries are rising faster and faster. De Nederlandsche Bank thinks that inflation was already 2.7 percent last year and that the average price increase will be around 3 percent this year and next. The collective labor agreement wages therefore do not make up for inflation by a long way.
“If purchasing power is eroded, it is not good for the economy,” says labor market professor Ton Wilthagen. “The tragic thing is that the wage margin is there, but it is not taken.” He understands that the corona crisis has put employers on the brakes. “These figures are clouded by the corona crisis and the current lockdown. Hospitality and retail are not the sectors where as a union you should start demanding high wages.” Nevertheless, he believes that more is possible in many other sectors.
According to DNB, the Dutch economy grew by 4.5 percent last year. Wilthagen therefore sees a repeat of before the corona crisis. “At the time, everyone was involved in the moderate wage increase. Up to Prime Minister Rutte and De Nederlandsche Bank. It didn’t help very much and I don’t think wages will peak any time soon.”
The hospitality industry, which is suffering heavily from the crisis, saw wages rise the least at 0.3 percent. This is offset by a plus of almost 3 percent in health care. Extra money went to healthcare staff during the crisis, even though there was still a political discussion about whether it was enough. Remarkably enough, education salaries rose much less rapidly at 1.4 percent.
Flex workers
Wilthagen thinks that cheap flex workers are an easy way out for employers to avoid high wages. “In addition, the power of trade unions has become less and less. And many union leaders have grown up in the culture of wage moderation.”