The key distinction is total payroll, not average pay. The OECD measure adds up nominal wages and salaries paid by businesses involved in renting, operating, buying, selling or managing property. It does not track property prices or show what a typical employee earned. The bill can grow because there are more workers, they work more hours, pay rates increase or the mix of jobs changes.
The new high follows a dip to 4,837.2 million shekels in 2024 from 5,325.3 million in 2023. The latest reading therefore represents both a recovery and a move beyond the previous peak. It is 801.1% above the 1995 level, though that long-run nominal comparison also incorporates inflation and changes in the sector’s size.
A related OECD employment-by-industry series rose 19.9% in 2025 and also reached a record. That smaller increase is consistent with more than employment growth being involved in the larger wage bill, but the two datasets cannot establish an average raise: employment coverage, hours worked and the composition of jobs can all differ.
The Bank of Israel’s annual report says economy-wide employee compensation increased as wartime reserve service and the loss of Palestinian workers constrained labor supply, producing shortages and rapid wage growth amid strong demand. That provides a credible backdrop for broad wage pressure, but it does not prove what caused the real estate sector’s particular increase.
For employers, the clearest takeaway is a substantially larger aggregate labor bill. For workers, the data do not establish a 37.5% raise or an improvement in purchasing power; that would require average-earnings and inflation-adjusted figures.