Norway: Preliminary Development in the 2024 Wage Settlement

Author: Håkon Andreassen

In Norway, wage settlements typically involve negotiations between labour unions and employer organizations and are settled in CBAs. Negotiations are often facilitated by the Technical Calculation Committee for Income Settlements (TBU), which provides analysis and recommendations based on economic data such as price levels, productivity growth, and inflation rates.

The 2024 salary settlement is a so-called “main settlement” that also involves all other content of the CBAs, such as pension, welfare leave, etc. This year, settlement will be unionized, meaning that each national association negotiates with its union counterparty.

As always, the so-called “Frontfaget” (“Front subject” or “Frontline sector”) starts off. “Frontfaget” encompasses industries that are often characterized by their international competitiveness and their influence on the overall wage level in the country and are considered to set the standard for wage negotiations.

A substantial general strike was avoided as a framework agreement of 5.2% was struck on 7 April at Frontfaget. Now, the rest of the national association will pursue their own negotiations.

Although the main rule is that such CBAs and their wages are only binding to those that are parties or legally bound as members of employers’ associations, they should at least be expected to be used as benchmarks or references for many employees in subsequent wage negotiations.