Abstract In times of inflation, the fear of so-called wage-price spirals becomes a central motif for policymaking. Yet, empirical studies on this phenomenon of spiraling input costs remain scarce. Lacking altogether is an assessment of the distributional effects of this form of cost-push inflation. Drawing on a standard sector-level cost-push inflation model, we examine the potential first- and second-round effects of a wage-price and wage-price-profit spiral scenario following the 2021 energy p