Dutch pay growth is on the increase

The Central Bureau of Statistics in the Netherlands has revealed that agreed pay rates are rising faster now than they were a year ago.

In the first three months of 2008, agreed rates rose by 2.7% on average – the highest rate of increase since 2003, and well above the 2.1% recorded over the same period in 2007. Inflation has also risen over the past year, from 1.8% in March 2007 to 2.2% 12 months later.

The highest pay rises have been in the education sector, with an average increase of 3.3%, while workers in hotels and catering came out worst; their agreed rates increased by only 1.2%.

• Spanish pay awards are also on the increase, according to one of the country’s two main union confederations.

CCOO claims that the average pay rise in the first two months of this year was 3.36%, compared to 2.84% in the same period of 2007.

Inflation in Spain stood at 4.5% in March, but almost three-quarters (74%) of the country’s multi-year deals – which account for almost all of the increases seen so far this year – contain inflation “catch-up” clauses.