Increase in contractual wage costs

The increase in wage costs in this article equals the increase in contractual wage costs and is based on information from the collectively negotiated wage package agreements. In addition to these increases, Statistics Netherlands also publishes wage cost increases according to the National Accounts definition. The contractual costs differ from the wage costs in the National Accounts. According to the latter, for example, wage costs rose by 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2006, and 0.6 percent in the second quarter.

The differences are caused by the following factors:
- the National Accounts data describe all employees, while the collective agreements only cover the employees included in sectors covered by such an agreement. An estimated eight out of ten employees fall under a collectively negotiated wage agreement.
- the National Accounts data are based on real money flows and comprise all wage components and employers’ payments. The data also comprise the effect of promotion, periodic wage increases etc. The collectively negotiated wages and contractual wage costs show the development of wages and social contributions insofar as they are unconditionally applicable to all employees.
- the development based on information on collectively agreed wages is not affected by changes in the employee population. Such changes do have an effect in the data of the National Accounts.