Press release No. 127 of 24 March 2022
WIESBADEN – According to final results of the quarterly survey of earnings, the index of nominal earnings in Germany increased by just under 3.1% in 2021 compared with a year earlier. The index reflects the development of gross monthly earnings including extra payments. Consumer prices rose by just over 3.1% in the same period. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that real earnings in 2021 thus decreased by 0.1% compared with 2020, following their previous downward trend in the first year of the Covid-19 crisis. The provisional results released on 16 February 2022 are thus confirmed. In 2021, high inflation offset the rise in nominal earnings, while the negative development of nominal and real earnings in 2020 was due in particular to the increase in short-time working.
Note on the new survey of earnings and change of the base period:
The results of the quarterly earnings survey for the fourth quarter and the year of 2021 are published in Fachserien for the last time. Starting with the new earnings survey as of 2022, it will be possible to retrieve all available data from the GENESIS-Online database. To meet the great demand for index figures of periods before 2022 that are comparable over time, new and old index series of gross earnings will be linked mathematically. However, the comparability of the data for 2021/2022 can be limited especially at the level of branches of economic activity.
When the results of the earnings indices for the first quarter of 2022 will be released during the second quarter of 2022, the base period will be changed to the first quarter of 2022=100. In addition, monthly earnings indices will for the first time be released in the second quarter of 2022. This includes the calculation of all monthly, quarterly and annual time series of the earnings indices as of the beginning of 2022 using an updated weighting pattern. Values of earlier periods will only be rebased. The rates of change for that period will change only due to rounding.
Basic data and long time series are available in tables Gross earnings, weekly working hours (62321-0001) and Indices of agreed earnings, weekly working hours (62231-0001) in the GENESIS-Online database.
