In 2024, Ukraine's real wages increased by 14.4%, but a slowdown in growth is anticipated for 2025.

The head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Financial, Tax, and Customs Policy Daniil Getmantsev reported that, according to the NBU's estimates, in 2024, the real wage (nominal wage adjusted for inflation) increased by 14.4% (compared to +3.7% in 2023, and “minus” 11.4% in 2022).

He stated that the growth of real wages in the economy in 2024 was driven by a labor shortage, and the rate of increase in real wages in 2024 was higher than the pre-war level.

“Real wages in most sectors exceeded the pre-war level. Specifically, in the third quarter of 2024, the average real wage across the economy was 7.2% higher than in the corresponding quarter of 2021,” he said.

Compared to Q3 2024 and Q3 2021, the most significant increases in real wages occurred in the following sectors:

- IT (+45.5%),

- trade (+32.3%),

- real estate transactions (+23.8%),

- finance (+22.6%),

- hotels and restaurants (+21.4%).

At the same time, in the same comparison, real wages declined in the following sectors:

- education (-14.8%)

- arts (-10.1%)

- and remained almost unchanged in construction (+0.9%).

“For 2025, the NBU forecasts a significant slowdown in the growth of real wages to +3.8% due to higher average inflation (12.4% in 2025 compared to 6.5% in 2024) and subsequent normalization of the labor market (a decrease in unemployment and structural imbalances, although these will still remain above pre-war levels),” Getmantsev added.