Press release No. 497 of 29 November 2022
- 2.3% year-on-year rise in nominal earnings could not compensate for inflation
- Largest loss in real earnings for employees since the beginning of the time series in 2008
WIESBADEN – The continuing high inflation in Germany again led to a decrease in real earnings in the third quarter of 2022. The index of nominal earnings was up 2.3% in the third quarter of 2022 on a year earlier according to provisional results of the new earnings survey but consumer prices rose 8.4% in the same period. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that this corresponds to a decrease in real (price-adjusted) earnings of 5.7%. Inflation thus more than offset the rise in nominal earnings also in the third quarter of 2022. Employees in Germany thus suffered a loss in real earnings for the fourth quarter in a row, following year-on-year decreases in real earnings of 4.4% in the second quarter of 2022, 1.8% in the first quarter of 2022 and 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2021. Also, this has been the largest and longest decrease in real earnings since the beginning of the time series in 2008. The index of nominal earnings shows the development of gross monthly earnings of employees, including extra payments, while the index of real earnings provides information on the price adjusted development of earnings.
Basic data and long time series are available in table earnings survey (62361) in the GENESIS-Online database.
