COVID-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, soaring energy prices, record inflation, and other factors have all put pressure on wages across Europe. Rising living costs have hit millions of European households hard.
Real wages, which take inflation into account, fell in a third of the European countries analysed over the five years to early 2026.
So, which countries saw the biggest real wage declines between the first quarters of 2021 and 2026? And where did real wages rise most? Why did some countries emerge as outliers in real wage growth while the euro area overall saw a decline?
According to the OECD Employment Outlook 2026, which covers 27 European countries but not all EU members, real wages declined in nine countries cumulatively between the first quarters of 2021 and 2026.
Impact of the 2022–2023 cost-of-living crisis
