When Is the Next Index in Luxembourg? What's Changing in 2026

2026 brings a quiet but meaningful update to how the trigger gets calculated, and the next tranche is closer than you might think.

According to STATEC's latest forecasts, published in February 2026, the next wage indexation is expected in the second quarter of 2026, meaning April, May, or June. A second tranche is then anticipated in the third quarter of 2027.

Inflation in Luxembourg is currently running at around 1.8%. Falling energy prices, partly thanks to government electricity subsidies, are keeping things relatively stable, but food and services are pushing steadily upward. The combination keeps inflation close enough to the threshold that the next index in Luxembourg is almost certainly coming before summer.

When the index triggers, your gross salary goes up by 2.5%, automatically. For the current minimum wage of €2,703.74 (unqualified workers), it means an automatic rise to around €2,771.

One thing worth keeping in mind: when your gross goes up, so does your taxable income. Your net salary won't increase by the full 2.5%. How much depends on your tax class and income level. Still a real gain, just not the headline figure.

When the index triggers, every gross salary under a Luxembourg employment contract increases by 2.5%, automatically and without exception. That means updating every salary, recalculating all social contributions, and issuing new payslips, all at the same time.

If you're running payroll manually or through a basic tool, an index can create a real crunch. Platforms like Salary.lu handle it automatically: salary adjustments, contribution recalculations, and updated payslips, all done without anyone having to touch each record individually.

To decide when to trigger the index, Luxembourg measures inflation through the Consumer Price Index (IPC). STATEC, the national statistics institute, tracks the prices of hundreds of goods and services that households actually buy. When that basket of prices rises enough on a sustained basis, the index kicks in.

Starting in 2026, Luxembourg is adopting a new European classification system called ECOICOP v2. In plain terms: the basket is being updated to reflect how people spend their money today, not a decade ago.

The most visible structural change is that the number of major spending categories goes from 12 to 13. The old catch-all "Miscellaneous goods and services" category is being split into two more precise ones: "Insurance and financial services" and "Personal care, social protection, and miscellaneous goods and services." More granularity, more accuracy.

Several spending categories are being added that weren't tracked before: home care services, gambling, delivery fees (Deliveroo, Amazon, etc.), multimedia streaming subscriptions (Netflix, Spotify...), and electric vehicle charging.

These are real, recurring costs for a large share of Luxembourg households today. Including them means the inflation figure will finally reflect what people are actually spending, not an outdated snapshot of consumption habits.

Beyond adding new items, the weighting of existing categories is also shifting. Energy and food are getting a bigger share of the overall calculation, which makes sense given how much those costs have risen and how central they are to every household budget. Housing, water, electricity, and fuel now account for 16.3% of the index. Food and non-alcoholic beverages sit at 14.7%.

Services like restaurants, transport, and healthcare see a slight reduction in weight. The shift reflects reality: you can cut back on dining out, but your electricity bill doesn't care.

In theory, slightly. A more representative basket means the inflation measure tracks real spending more closely. But STATEC doesn't expect dramatic differences in practice. The trigger level and the 2.5% salary increase stay exactly the same. This is an accuracy update, not a policy change.

The 2026 IPC update doesn't change how the index works, it makes the measurement more honest. A basket that includes streaming, delivery fees, and EV charging is a basket that reflects what Luxembourg households actually spend money on in 2026.

The mechanism stays the same. The math just gets a little better. And if STATEC's forecast holds, the next index in Luxembourg will reflect that before summer.