07/04/2023 11:35 (act. 07/04/2023 13:41)
Real wages are down across Europe in 2022. ©CanvaPro (subject)
Last year, real employee wages increased not only in Austria, but in almost all EU countries.
The purchasing power of employees has fallen in 26 of the 27 EU countries, according to the wage report published on Tuesday by the Institute of Economic and Social Sciences (WSI) of the union-affiliated Hans Böckler Foundation. The only exception was the low-wage country of Bulgaria, where real wages rose by 4.7%.
Real wages fall across Europe in 2022
According to the study, the average loss of purchasing power in the EU was 4.0%. In Austria it was 3.7 percent, in neighboring Germany 4.1 percent. There were particularly significant losses in Estonia (9.3%), Greece (8.2%) and the Czech Republic (8.1%).
Inflation rates are to blame for the collapse of real wages
High inflation rates are to blame for the collapse of real wages. While initially driven by higher import prices for fossil fuels and food, rising corporate profits are now also contributing significantly to the uptrend, WSI wrote.
Imbalance between wage and profit development
Due to the imbalance between wage and profit development, the share of wages in national income has noticeably declined, WSI experts report. Across the EU, the wage share fell by about two percentage points between 2020 and the end of 2022. “In the midst of the crisis, there was a redistribution of wages and in favor of capital income,” concluded WSI researchers Thilo Janssen and Lubke malt.