Nominal wages in Germany were in the 1st

This is the weakest increase since 2022. Consumer prices rose by 2.3 percent over the same period. As the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) further announced on Thursday, real wages in the first quarter of 2025 were 1.2 percent higher than in the same quarter of the previous year, thus rising for the eighth time in a row.

The abolition of the inflation compensation premium is likely responsible for the comparatively moderate increase. Above-average nominal wage increases were observed in the first quarter of 2025 in the energy supply (+6.6 percent), professional, scientific, and technical activities (+5.8 percent), and information and communication (+5.8 percent). In contrast, the financial and insurance activities (+1.5 percent) and real estate activities (+1.1 percent) sectors recorded comparatively low nominal wage increases. The mining and quarrying sector recorded a nominal wage decline of -2.4 percent. Looking at full-time employees by their earnings category, the fifth with the lowest earnings (1st quintile) experienced the strongest earnings increases in the first quarter of 2025, with an average nominal wage increase of 7.2 percent compared to the same period last year. Earnings for full-time employees overall rose by 3.6 percent, matching nominal wages in the economy as a whole. For the top fifth with the highest earnings among full-time employees (5th quintile), the nominal wage increase was 2.7 percent. Apprentices experienced above-average nominal wage growth of 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Marginally employed workers, on the other hand, recorded an increase of only 0.7 percent, according to statisticians.