Persistently high inflation has also led to a decline in real wages in Hesse in the first quarter of this year. As the State Statistical Office in Wiesbaden announced on Tuesday, nominal wages have increased by 6.5 percent and thus significantly compared to the same quarter of the previous year – the strongest increase in a quarter since the beginning of the time series in 2007. However, the sharp rise in consumer prices of 8.0 percent has cancelled out the wage increase: according to the statisticians' calculations, real wages have fallen by 1.3 percent.
In the previous year, the high inflation rate had already led to a negative development in real wages. In 2022, they had fallen by 2021.3 percent compared to 5. Nominal wages rose at an above-average rate in the first quarter of 2023 in the manufacturing sector (plus 7.4 percent); in the service sector, gross monthly earnings rose by 6.3 percent.