The European Central Bank (ECB) has reported that its wage tracker, which monitors negotiated wage growth in the euro area, stood at 2.7% in the first quarter of 2027. This indicates stable negotiated wage pressures at the turn of the year, with a limited role for one-off payments. The wage tracker with smoothed one-off payments showed a rate of 2.3% in 2026, based on a coverage of 44.3% of employees in participating countries, and 2.7% in the first quarter of 2027, with a coverage of 28.4%. The ECB wage tracker with unsmoothed one-off payments and the tracker excluding one-off payments both showed stable negotiated wage growth of 2.6% in 2026 and 2.7% in the first quarter of 2027. The forward-looking horizon of the wage tracker has been extended to the end of March 2027, and it will be further extended to the second quarter of 2027 in the September 2026 data release. The ECB publishes four wage tracker indicators for the aggregate of the nine participating euro area countries on the ECB Data Portal. The headline ECB wage tracker is a tracker of negotiated wage growth that includes collectively agreed one-off payments, smoothed over 12 months. The wage tracker excluding one-off payments reflects the extent of structural negotiated wage increases. The ECB wage tracker with unsmoothed one-off payments is constructed using a methodology similar to that used for the ECB indicator of negotiated wage growth. Employee coverage for 2026 stood at 47.0% in the first quarter, 45.7% in the second quarter, 42.5% in the third quarter, and 42.0% in the fourth quarter, decreasing to 28.4% in the first quarter of 2027. The ECB wage tracker may be subject to revision, and the forward-looking component should not be interpreted as a forecast. For a more comprehensive assessment of wage developments in the euro area, the June 2026 Eurosystem staff macroeconomic projections indicate a yearly growth rate of compensation per employee in the euro area of 3.2% in 2026.