Luxembourg had the highest average hourly labour costs of any country in the EU last year at €55.20, according to a study published by the bloc’s official statistics agency Eurostat on Friday.
The Eurostat data showed that hourly wages in the Grand Duchy were well ahead of the next highest in Denmark (€50.10 an hour) and Belgium (€48.20).
But the figures also indicated that average hourly wages in Luxembourg rose by just 2.1% between 2023 and 2024, the third lowest increases in the eurozone behind Czechia (+1.3%) and Finland (+1.8%).
© Photo credit: Eurostat
In 2023, Luxembourg also had the highest average hourly labour costs in the EU, at €53.90. That was an increase of more than three euros from 2022, when the rate stood at €50.71. Employees in Luxembourg enjoyed an unprecedented three automatic salary indexations during 2023, one of which had been deferred from 2022.
The last time average hourly labour costs in the Grand Duchy were still below the €50 threshold was back in 2021, when the rate stood at €48.40.
Last year there were no wage indexations as inflation was brought under control. But state statistics office Statec, in its latest flash estimate published on Thursday, said that an indexation may be due in the second quarter of this year.
The lowest hourly labour costs in the EU last year were recorded in Bulgaria (€10.60), Romania (€12.50) and Hungary (€14.10). Across the EU, average hourly labour costs in 2024 were estimated to be €33.50, rising to €37.30 for countries making up the eurozone area, both up from 2023, when they stood at €31.90 and €35.70, respectively.