The price of labor per hour increased by 4.4 percent on average in the countries of the European Union in 2022, according to the latest data from the European statistics bureau Eurostat.
When the wage growth is compared with the inflation rate of 9.2 percent in the EU last year, it follows that the increase in wages last year compensated for only half of the increase in the cost of living.
The gap between wages and inflation is even greater when it comes to the most basic costs of living: the cost of housing and utilities (18 percent of total costs) grew four times faster than wages, while transport and food (12 percent) grew three times faster. .
Real wages, which indicate the movement of wages in relation to inflation, fell last year in all EU member states by an average of nine percent. By comparison, real profit increased by one percent, according to Eurostat data.
Data from the European Central Bank (ECB) show that increases in profit margins in 2021 and 2022 were higher than increases in unit labor costs, which means that the rise in profit rates has a more significant role in driving inflation.
Commenting on these Eurostat data, the general secretary of the European Confederation of Trade Unions, Ester Lynch, assessed that the price increases threatened the living standards of employees and their families.
“These numbers are further evidence that workers are victims of inflation, not the cause of it. Behind these numbers are real people who are struggling to provide food for their families, heat their homes and even afford transportation to their workplaces,” Lynch said. .
She added that the decline in workers’ living standards is the result of companies, especially those in the energy and food sectors, using supply problems to raise their prices and make record profits.
According to her, “it’s time for politicians to stop punishing the victims of inflation by cutting wages and to tackle the real cause of inflation by taxing excess profits”.