Wages within the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and France grew year-on-year by 5.5%, 5.3%, 3.8%, and 1.9%, respectively, in Could 2025. That is based mostly on wage knowledge from world hiring platform Certainly.
After adjusting for inflation — utilizing CPI knowledge from the ONS and Eurostat — actual wage development stood at 2.3% within the UK, 1.8% within the Netherlands, 1.6% in Germany, and 1.1% in France over the identical interval.
Delving deeper than country-specific charges, wage development nonetheless varies considerably throughout occupations and sectors.
Primarily based on knowledge supplied by Certainly to Euronews, we take a more in-depth have a look at the roles that skilled the biggest annual will increase and declines in wages, based mostly on a three-month shifting common as of Could 2025.
Our evaluation focuses on the 25 largest occupational classes, calculated by their share of complete job postings.
Authorized roles see the best rise within the UK and Germany
Among the many 4 international locations named above, authorized roles noticed the best actual wage development in each Germany and the UK, with will increase of 5.7% and 4.3%, respectively. This class contains a number of occupations, with legal professionals being the main function.
Based on Certainly, the common annual wage for a lawyer is £53,420 (€61,900) within the UK and €71,274 in Germany as of mid-2025. These figures replicate nationwide averages, although salaries differ considerably by area. For instance, legal professionals in London earn a mean of round £70,450 (€81,670) per 12 months.
In France, the administration sector and the safety & public security trade each recorded the best actual wage development, at round 2%. Within the Netherlands, cleansing & sanitation roles noticed the biggest improve at 4%, adopted intently by safety & public security at 3.9%.
“Postings are down 12 months on 12 months in virtually each occupational class, so it’s essential to take a look at wage development and job posting traits relative to the common to see which classes are over- and underperforming available in the market for brand new hires,” Pawel Adrjan, Director of Financial Analysis at Certainly, advised Euronews Enterprise.
Jobs and drivers of wage development within the UK
Among the many 4 international locations, the UK recorded the best wage development, each in nominal and actual phrases.
“The UK’s excessive wage development has been puzzling economists for some time. Whereas down from its peak, wage development stays pretty excessive in nominal phrases, although demand for brand new staff has fallen considerably,” Adrjan mentioned.
He famous that there are a variety of seemingly causes for this pattern, and one is that the federal government has determined to extend the minimal wage. That is impacting salaries not simply within the lowest-paid jobs, however additionally it is having ripple results on wage distribution. Employers could really feel the necessity to elevate salaries throughout the board to keep up wage variations between roles and expertise ranges.
One other issue driving wage development is that labour provide is constricted by decrease immigration charges and excessive financial inactivity. This implies employers usually tend to elevate wages to draw and retain staff.
Wanting on the 25 largest occupations, sure jobs noticed greater than a 3% bounce in actual wages within the UK. Prime-ranking authorized professions confirmed a 4.3% improve, whereas roles in retail (3.3%), manufacturing & manufacturing (3.2%), loading & stocking (3.1%), and customer support (3%) additionally noticed vital rises.
Progress confirmed a gradual, gradual sample, with no excessive outliers, other than the top-performing authorized sector and the lowest-ranking software program improvement jobs (-2.2%).
Well being and care-related occupations within the UK, together with nursing (1.7%), childcare (2.3%), and private care and residential well being (2.1%), noticed modest actual wage development.
IT wages in decline in Germany
In Germany, authorized roles noticed the strongest actual wage development at 5.7%, adopted by manufacturing & manufacturing and medical technician jobs (each at 4.1%).
Schooling, safety, media, and human sources roles additionally recorded stable good points between 3.5% and three.9%.
In distinction, IT-related roles noticed the most important declines in actual wages. For instance, IT operations & helpdesk roles noticed a 6.4% decline, and software program improvement jobs registered a lower of 4.2%. For these roles, which means costs have gone up quicker than wages, lowering staff’ buying energy.
Certainly’s Adrjan famous that wage development has slowed however stays above the Eurozone common in Germany.
“Wage development is pushed to a big extent by a gradual and coordinated strategy of union negotiations, which have in lots of circumstances concluded with multi-year wage will increase which might be nonetheless affecting mixture wage development traits right this moment,” he mentioned.
No outliers in France’s wage development
In France, actual wage development was comparatively flat throughout many sectors, with most occupations clustered between 0.5% and 1.5%. On the decrease finish, private care & residence well being, banking & finance, and software program improvement noticed minimal will increase of 0.2% or much less.
Main the checklist, administration and safety & public security roles (each at 2%) are adopted intently by the knowledge design & documentation sector (1.9%). Human sources is available in subsequent, at 1.8%.
“In France, there’s a excessive diploma of indexation of the minimal wage to inflation, and wages negotiated between corporations and unions are likely to comply with swimsuit, which means that wage development responded swiftly to inflation will increase in 2022 and 2023 in addition to to the marked slowdown in inflation over the previous two years,” Adrjan defined.
Actual wages fall in Dutch well being and care roles
Wage development within the Netherlands was led by cleansing & sanitation (4.0%) and safety & public security (3.9%), with notable good points additionally seen in banking & finance (3.4%), administration (3.1%), and building (3.0%).
In distinction, a number of care-related occupations skilled actual wage declines, together with nursing (-0.3%), childcare (-0.5%) and physicians & surgeons (-0.6%).
Uncover extra: Wage traits within the UK, Germany, and France
For the reason that sectors listed within the charts above cowl a variety of roles, wage particulars for particular positions could be discovered on Certainly’s web site. Euronews Enterprise articles additionally supply detailed wage breakdowns for the UK, Germany, and France individually.
