In the transport and postal sector, an additional wage impulse would be justified. In this industry, wage increases have lagged behind in recent years, leaving room for additional wage growth. So concludes the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) in a study on wage setting.
DNB argues that wages can go up in all sectors that are not exposed to competition with foreign producers, or are exposed to a limited extent. Besides transport and postal services, these sectors include trade, hospitality, rental and other business services. These sectors would account for 46 per cent of employment in the market sector. Due to foreign competition, there is no scope for wage increases in manufacturing and information & communication.
The wage share (the part of what is earned annually in the Netherlands that reaches employees in the form of wages) is said to have been under pressure in the Netherlands for a number of years due to globalisation, a weakened bargaining position of employees and the flexibilisation of the labour market. What is not paid out in wages goes to capital providers and shareholders in the form of interest and profit, the Financieele Dagblad writes. The wage share in the Netherlands now stands at just over 77 per cent. That means an average of 77 per cent of what is earned is paid out in wages across all sectors. According to DNB, this is a decrease compared to the long-term average. From this, the bank concludes that there is room for more wages in the aforementioned sectors.
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