Negotiated wages up by 5.5 percent in Q1

© ANP / ANP
In the first quarter of 2025, the hourly wage rates agreed under collective labour agreements, including special remuneration, were 5.5 percent higher than in Q1 2024. Growth in negotiated wages has fallen since the third quarter of 2024, when it reached 6.9 percent, the highest in more than forty years. Wages were 1.8 percent higher in the first quarter, adjusted for inflation. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this on the basis of newly released figures.

The private sector saw the highest increase in negotiated wages, at 5.7 percent. The slowest growth rate was seen in the public sector; up by 4.7 percent on Q1 2024. Wages rose by 5.4 percent in the semi-public sector, which includes a large part of government-subsidised health care. A number of major collective labour agreements in health care, including residential care, nursing homes, domiciliary care and youth health care (VVT), hospitals, disabled care and mental health care have not been replaced by new definitive agreements. However, an initial agreement has been reached, which will be voted on in April. This means that 41 percent of collective labour agreements in the semi-public sector have been concluded.

Sharpest wage growth in the information and communication sector

The sharpest increase in negotiated wages in Q1 2025 was seen in the information and communications sector, at 9.6 percent. This was followed by the other services sector (including laundry and (dry) cleaning services, hairdressing and funeral services), where wages rose by 8.8 percent. Negotiated wages remained unchanged in real estate activities (housing corporations), whereas in 2023 wages roses by the most in this sector. At the beginning of 2025, no new definitive agreement had been reached on the majority of CLAs in the health care sector, which means that the data on wages in this sector is missing for Q1 2025.

Contractual wage costs rose slightly more than negotiated wages

Contractual wage costs and negotiated wages plus employer contributions (for pensions, occupational disability, unemployment and health insurance) rose by 5.7 percent in Q1 of 2025. That was slightly more than the changes in negotiated wages. This is mainly because employer contributions for occupational disability and unemployment have increased, while health insurance contributions have decreased.

Real wage growth of 1.8 percent

The real-terms growth in negotiated wages, adjusted for inflation, was 1.8 percent in Q1 2025. This means that real wage growth has declined for four consecutive quarters.



The provisional figures for Q1 2025 are based on 83 percent of the data collected on collective labour agreements to compile the statistic. Three-quarters of employed persons in the Netherlands are covered by a collective labour agreement.

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

Sources