Informations Rapides · 13 June 2025 · n° 145

In Q1 2025, hourly wages increased by 2.5% over a year, hourly costs by 2.7% Labour cost index (LCI) - Detailed results - first quarter 2025

In the first quarter of 2025, hourly wages in the non-agricultural market sector (excluding services to households) slowed sharply: +0.1% over the quarter, after +1.3% in the last quarter of 2024 (seasonally and trading day adjusted data). This slowdown was the result of the sharp drop in the payments of the Value Sharing Premium (“PPV”) compared with the end of 2024: €520 million were paid to the employees in the first quarter of 2025, after €1.8 billion in the previous quarter and €500 million at the start of 2024.

Over a year, the wage growth was steady: +2.5% in the first quarter of 2025, as in the previous quarter. This evolution was less than half the peak reached in mid-2023 (+5.1% over a year), as wage negotiations took account of falling inflation: on average in the first quarter of 2025, the consumer price index increased by 0.9% over a year (compared with +5.2% in mid-2023).

By sector, in the first quarter of 2025, hourly wages accelerated barely in industry (+2.8% over a year, after +2.7%) and in services (+2.5%, after +2.4%), while they slowed in construction (+2.3%, after +2.7%), a sector where PPV payments had been particularly massive at the end of 2024 and then fell sharply at the start of 2025.

In the first quarter of 2025, hourly labour costs in the non-agricultural market sector (excluding services to households) slowed, in line with wages: +0.5% over the quarter, after +1.0% in the previous quarter.

Hourly labour costs also slowed over a year: +2.7% in the first quarter of 2025, after +2.9% in the previous quarter. The rise in labour costs over a year remained slightly higher than the rise in wages: this primarily reflected the decline in the amounts of exemptions of employers′ contributions, which had sharply increased between the end of 2021 and the end of 2023, and to a lesser extent the legislative changes introduced at the start of 2025, like the reduction in the amounts of apprenticeship aid.

Hourly labour costs slowed in all the main business sectors, more so in construction (+2.5% over a year, after +3.1%) than in industry (+2.9%, after +3.1%) and in services (+2.6%, after +2.8%).

Compared to the flash estimate published on 15 May 2025, the year-on-year change in LCI - hourly wages in the non-agricultural market sector (excluding services to households) in the first quarter of 2025 was revised upwards by 0.2 points; the one in LCI - hourly costs was revised upwards by 0.3 points. These revisions were the result of the integration of new information on the paid hours, in particular the inclusion of employers’ late declarations.

Compared to the previous publication of detailed results on 19 March 2025, the year-on-year change in LCI - hourly wages in the non-agricultural market sector (excluding services to households) in the fourth quarter of 2024 was revised upwards by 0.1 point; the one in LCI - hourly costs was revised upwards by 0.2 points.

More generally, for this publication of the detailed results of the first quarter of 2025, the chain for processing the information available on wages and the methods for estimating the indicators had been revised. These changes, described in the methodological note, led to larger than ususal revisions to all the LCI series. They ensured the series are less volatile over the recent period and that year changes in LCI are more consistent with those in the structural data on wages.