Fürth (dpa / lby) – The high inflation is causing real wages in Bavaria to shrink. In the third quarter, they were on average 5.5 percent below the values for the same period last year, as the State Statistical Office announced on Friday. Although employees earned an average of 3.1 percent more in nominal terms, that was far from enough to compensate for the 9.2 percent increase in prices.
The third quarter is thus the fifth in a row in which price-adjusted wages are below the respective value of the same period of the previous year. Since the beginning of 2020 there have only been two quarters with a plus. After all, the decline has lost some of its momentum: In the second quarter, the minus was 5.6 percent compared to the same period last year.
The statisticians attribute the significant increase in nominal wages primarily to the decline in short-time work. This has a particularly high impact on the figures, since the short-time allowance is not included in the calculation as a wage replacement benefit.