Data for 2025 indicates a significant improvement in consumer purchasing power in Germany, where nominal earnings grew faster than the prices of goods and services. Simultaneously, the latest Eurostat statistics place Poland among the European leaders in countries with the smallest differences in earnings between women and men. Despite positive wage trends in Germany, the level of real incomes has not yet fully returned to the values recorded before the pandemic and the energy crisis.
Growth in real wages in Germany
In 2025, wages in Germany grew faster than inflation, leading to a real increase in workers' purchasing power for the first time in several years.
Poland among the leaders in pay gap
According to Eurostat data, Poland ranks third in the EU with the smallest difference in earnings between women and men, trailing only Italy and Luxembourg.
Distance to the 2019 level
Despite current increases, the real level of wages in Germany has still not returned to the peak values recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Educational challenges in Bavaria
The increasing number of students avoiding school in Bavaria, coupled with the lack of a central registration system, makes it difficult to control this phenomenon.
The German economy in 2025 recorded a significant rebound in household incomes. According to data from the Federal Statistical Office, real wages in Germany rose once again, which is a direct effect of slowing inflation and relatively high increases negotiated in collective agreements. The growth in purchasing power was particularly visible in states such as Bavaria, Lower Saxony, and Thuringia, where wage dynamics clearly outpaced the rate of price increases. Nevertheless, experts emphasize that although this is the third consecutive quarter of improvement, average real wages still hover below the record level from 2019, illustrating the scale of losses suffered by workers in previous years. Concurrently, Eurostat published a report on the gender pay gap in the European Union, which brings optimistic news for the Polish labor market. Poland ranked third in the list of countries with the smallest disparities in earnings based on gender. Only in Luxembourg and Italy are these differences smaller, and in one of the community's countries, a reverse situation was even recorded, where women earn more on average. The reduction of the pay gap in Poland is seen as proof of progressing structural and cultural changes, although analysts note that raw statistical data does not always reflect the full picture in managerial positions or the private sector. The real wage index is a key measure of prosperity, calculated by adjusting nominal wage growth for the consumer price index (CPI). In the shadow of the main economic news, German media report on social problems in Bavaria, where an increase in the number of students avoiding compulsory schooling has been recorded. The lack of central statistics in this state hampers the fight against the phenomenon of "truancy," which intensified in the post-war and post-pandemic period. Meanwhile, the tourism industry in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia shows strong stability, benefiting from the growing popularity of off-peak season travel, which is linked to travelers' greater financial resources. „Die Reallöhne sind 2025 weiter gestiegen, das Niveau von 2019 wurde jedoch noch nicht wieder erreicht.” (Real wages continued to rise in 2025, but the level from 2019 has not yet been reached again.) — Federal Statistical Office From a regional perspective, Germany's wage landscape remains diverse. While industry in the wealthier southern states is quickly adapting to new wage conditions, eastern states, such as Thuringia, are still catching up. The wage growth in 2025 covered almost all sectors, though the greatest benefits were felt by workers in industries with strong trade unions. However, the general optimism is tempered by data on checks for undeclared work in Schleswig-Holstein, the number of which increased, suggesting that part of the market still operates outside the official economic circuit.
Perspektywy mediów: Liberal media emphasize the success in reducing the pay gap and improving purchasing power as a triumph of social justice and stabilization. Conservative sources point out that despite the increases, the real incomes of Germans are still lower than in previous years, and labor costs burden companies.