2023-07-07 15:15:07
– Unions want 5 percent more wages – although inflation is much lower
With the salary increases, the companies are supposed to compensate their employees for the meager last few years. The employers dismiss the claims.
Published: 07/07/2023, 17:15
Purchasing power has fallen in the last two years: road builders at Chillon VD.
Foto: Anthony Anex (Keystone)
The fall in wages begins this year in July: the country’s largest trade unions called for an average wage increase of 5 percent at a joint media conference in Bern on Friday.
That’s a high figure given the federal government’s expectation that inflation should be 2.3 percent over the year as a whole. The unions justify their demand with the argument that employees are entitled to wage increases that employers have refused in previous years.
In fact, the Swiss labor market is in an unusual situation: unions are warning that real wages might fall in 2023 for the first time since the end of the Second World War for the third year in a row. Real wage development is the growth or decline in wages actually paid less inflation.
The reason for the current situation lies in the global developments of the last few years: First, the brief economic slowdown due to the pandemic put pressure on wage developments. Therefollowing, supply chain problems and the increase in commodity prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, among other things, led to high inflation.
This temporarily rose to over 3 percent in Switzerland last year. In an international comparison, this was a very low value, but inflation in this country was last this high (and even higher) at the beginning of the 1990s.
“The upcoming pay round is the most important for many years. It needs a turnaround.”
Daniel Lampart, chief economist at the Swiss Confederation of Trade Unions
Average annual inflation in 2022 was 2.8 percent. Although the unions demanded around 5 percent higher wages at the time, they only increased by 0.9 percent in absolute terms. The purchasing power of the population fell by 1.9 percent compared to the previous year.
Employers, on the other hand, have not suffered, complains Daniel Lampart, chief economist at the SGB trade union federation. He refers, among other things, to the business situation indicator of the economic research center at ETH Zurich. In fact, it has been at a high level for two years.
“It now needs a trend reversal,” says Lampart. The upcoming pay round is the most important for many years, which is why the company is communicating its own demands exceptionally early this time. Unions usually only announce them following the summer holidays. According to Lampart, the move has nothing to do with the fact that the demands would be lost in the noise of the election campaign in late summer.
Economic development is crucial
The employers’ association clearly rejected the demands of the unions in a statement. He points out that in the years before the pandemic, employees would have regularly received real wage increases.
Economic development will play an important role in who will prevail this time. In fact, there are signs of an economic slowdown.
Should this trend continue and the shortage of skilled workers ease, employers would have better arguments. However, this might also result in a further decline in inflation – and thus real wages rise.
More regarding the economic situationKonrad Staehelin is the parliamentary correspondent for the economics department. In addition, the studied political scientist writes regarding the aviation dossier. He has been working at Tamedia since 2020.More information@KStaeh
Found a bug? Report now.
24 comments
1688777413
#Unions #percent #wages #inflation
