Changes in negotiated wages

Negotiated wages per hour including special remunerations rose by 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024. Since the second half of 2023, collectively negotiated wages have risen more than 6.2 percent every quarter, with the highest increase in the third quarter of 2024 (6.9 percent). For the whole of 2024, negotated wage growth was the highest since 1982 (6.6 percent). This increase is as high as it was in Q4 2023, when the largest negotiated wage increase in over 40 years was recorded.

Contractual wage costs (negotiated wages and employer contributions) rose by 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter. As a result, the change in contractual wage costs was slightly above the change in negotiated wages. This was mainly due to an increase in the employer's differentiated premium for the Invalidity Insurance Fund (AOF) in 2024, while the health insurance premium decreased.

Among the three different sectors, the negotiated wages increased the most in the private sector (6.8 percent) in Q4 2024. In the semi-public sector and the public sector, wages increased by 6.4 and 5.8 percent, respectively.

Between 2020 and Q4 2024, negotiated wages rose the most in the public sector (23.6 percent). In the semi-public sector of subsidised institutions, wages increased by 21.1 percent during this period and by 20.3 percent in privately held companies.

The provisional figure for Q4 2024 is based on 95 percent of the collective labour agreements for which the statistic is compiled. Three-quarters of workers are covered by a collective labour agreement.

In December 2023, CBS started a new series of negotiated wages, using 2020 as the base year.

Negotiated wages, final figures 2023

In 2023, the negotiated wages per hour, including special remuneration, increased by 6.1 percent compared with 2023. This increase is nearly twice that of 2022 (3.2 percent) and the highest after 1982.

Among sectors, the largest negotiated wage increase in 2023 was in the transport and storage sector (8.5 percent).
The smallest wage increase among sectors was in real estate activities. In 2023, wages in this sector rose by 2.5 percent.

Figures on StatLine: Cao wages, contractual wage costs and working hours