If we look ahead, according to Mujagic, we see that the picture for next year will be significantly different than last year. It’s getting harder and harder to win over people. Salary increases of 5% and more agreed in recent months will be implemented this year. If I add the drop in inflation and the measures taken by the government to support purchasing power, then 2023 could just be a year in which almost everyone in the Netherlands will improve.’
According to Klaas Knot, chairman of De Nederlandsche Bank, there is currently a wage gap of around 5-7%, the employers’ organization AWVN is much more critical of this. Yet many companies won’t shy away from paying higher wages, Mujagic thinks. “The tight job market is only getting worse. Obviously the employer doesn’t like to raise wages too much, but if you have to choose between that or not hiring people, choose the former anyway.’
Robotization
According to Mujagic, it’s not bad for economic growth if wages continue to rise sharply for a while, since people simply have more room to spend. Even in the long run. “If you are faced with structural wage increases as an employer, this is a good incentive to invest more in working smarter and more efficiently so that the productivity of your staff increases.”
According to the economist, we need not yet fear that further robotization will cause the disappearance of many jobs. “We’ve been feeling this for years. It has never come to that, and this was at a time when the working population was still growing. Last year there were more deaths than births for the first time. Our working population will decrease, so robotization would be very welcome news right now.’