•Analyses the effects of labour market dualities on aggregate wage growth.•Investigates changes in the determinants of wage growth after the crisis.•Provides an encompassing discussion of wage setting theories. The drivers of wage growth in Europe are insufficiently understood. I argue that the institutional structure of labour markets – particularly labour market dualities – improve our understanding of the determinants of wage growth. This also helps to understand the period of a secular decline in wage growth after the crisis. Using data for the member states of the EU from Q1 2004 to Q4 2016, I demonstrate that there is a negative effect of the incidence of temporary contracts on overall wage growth. Further, I am able to show that it has considerably increased since the global financial crisis.