Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

And you think the gross salary of the broad middle is €4100

Here we are back at the first lecture in statistics.
Much more meaningful here is the comparison using the median income. Outliers distort the average value too much and make it less useful as a benchmark.

Are you sure that this is the causal chain?

The causal chain is that productivity grows in an economy. If there were no wage increases, the increased productivity could not be sold because who would buy it? Additionally, economies always aim for a slightly >0 inflation so that the private sector does not withdraw money from the economic cycle through too high a savings rate, since the savings of one sector must be the debts of another.

A company sells something, and if everything slowly becomes more expensive, they also make nominally more profit. So they could even compensate for inflation in their wage payments if they themselves do not become more productive. If they can’t even do that, the market will eventually sort them out—and that is intentional.

By the way, in Germany it was usual not to generate sales markets in the domestic country through higher national income, but abroad by withholding wages. This was shown by the extreme current account surplus. Now a bit is happening on the wage front, which is rather normal in other countries, and suddenly everyone is worried about the economic location because we are supposedly losing competitiveness… at the same time, you can’t find skilled workers in any industry.

Completely crazy. The 8.5% IG Metall was also not a final annual figure, if I see correctly, but rather just under 4% annual rate? That would be totally reasonable and normal, with 2% desired inflation and ongoing productivity increases in the economy.

What I mean is getting a raise without an increase in performance, taking on new tasks, a promotion, or more responsibility. I call that inflation compensation, and we don’t have that here. You have to earn a raise with us (no collective agreement, no unions, no works council).

Are you sure about that? That would mean the cleaning lady who cleaned the hallway for €8/hour 10 years ago still doesn't earn more today. She doesn’t do anything better, faster, nicer, shinier, just as clean as always. I don’t think she would still be with you...

I understand what you mean by performance-based increases, but even the low-/mid-performers have to be compensated at least somewhat for inflation over the years, otherwise they would actually be regressing.

Someone wrote that there was no inflation for 8 years. Well, so real estate didn’t get more expensive for 8 years? Inflation can’t just be measured by fuel prices, it’s a whole basket of goods from many areas. I would say it got more expensive every year; something always increased in price.

We mainly do mental work, so there is always room for improvement. Improvements are possible qualitatively as well, not just quantitatively. It’s clear that such a guideline can also be abused, but that’s not the case with us (at least not in my line).

My experience with the medium-sized company was as follows: As long as everything goes the way the owner envisions and you do exactly what he expects, you have a great life. Back then, we wanted to build up a large online shop for a specific product segment that had zero competition at the time and potentially over 2.5 million customers who needed the products monthly.

Quote from the owner: "We don’t want anything modern like this internet stuff. I’d rather have our field salespeople visit every single customer. That way, the neighbors will immediately see that we exist." Phew – my department head at the time quit immediately afterward because he thought it was too stupid. The order for the clarification and conception of the online shop had come directly from the owner just a few months earlier...

Then the HR department made an error in the time recording for me. Instead of 200 overtime hours, they recorded 100 negative hours. Conversation with the owner: "You’re really deep in the red with us now because of your negative hours; you’ll have to work hard to regain this lost trust!"

I was able to prove the calculation error in the timesheets forwarded to HR, and the next conversation went like this: “We are as disappointed in you as in how you behave and what you take for yourself. You should actually be grateful that you are allowed to work here! And then you behave like this and walk all over us!”

Right after the conversation, I said goodbye, packed my bag, and booked a nice vacation in the south. After that, it was clear to me:

Never again medium-sized companies, never again owner-managed, never again without a works council, never again without a collective agreement. And since then, that’s worked out very well for me.

And what does all this have to do with the rising construction costs?

And what does all this have to do with the rising construction costs?

Material costs and labor costs up. And the contractors' wages aka profits also up. Someone has to pay for that.