A welcome news given the very high inflation last year: our salary adaption method has finally picked up the high prices and the salary increases in the member states from last year. As a result, as of 1 July, we will profit from a general intermediate salary update of 3%, backdated to 1 January 2024. As this is a general update, it also triggers a recalculation of all correction coefficients. Details can be found in the recently published Eurostat report.
What is even more interesting is the forecast that this report includes as well. We need to warn you that this is really a forecast: the reference period that determines the full yearly update is still running, so figures for the yearly update can still change. Further, the forecast is based on data from March, so there exists an inherent imprecision.
With this caveat in place, we can move to the details. An intermediate update is triggered by an inflation of at least 3.0% for the period June 2023 – December 2023 (which is interpreted as the period 1 July 2023 – 1 January 2024). Eurostat measures this inflation via the Joint Index which includes inflation in Luxembourg and Belgium. The inflation for this 6-month period is exactly 3.0%, which triggers the intermediate update.
The next ingredient is the evolution of purchasing power of national officials in the member states. This is measured via the so-called global specific indicator, which tracks the change in the real, net remuneration of national officials. While this value is +3.3% for the just mentioned 6-month period, it is used for an intermediate update only if it is negative.[1] Therefore, the intermediate update has a value of precisely the 3% of the Joint Index.
Eurostat has equally provided a preliminary estimate for the yearly update in December, which will have a retrospective effect as of 1 July. According to this estimate, the full yearly update will have a value of +6.5%. As intermediate update is already included in these 6.5%, the remaining update at the end of the year is
1.065 / 1.03 = 1.034 ⇒ 3.4%
As we mentioned aboved, the global specific indicator has a value of 3.3%, which is higher than 2.0%. However, under Article 10 of Annex XI, if this threshold of 2.0% is exceeded by the global specific indicator, then the moderation clause triggers. We spare you the details and give you just the result: the update at the end of the year will be split:
As of 01/07/2024 (and paid retrospectively in December 2024): +2.1%
As of 01/04/2025: +1.3%
We finish this article by highlighting again that the numbers for the yearly update are not final yet!
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[1] Annex XI, Article 7: “The amount of the update shall be the Joint Index, multiplied, where appropriate, by half of the specific indicator forecast if this is negative.”
