Trends in Croatian trade in goods are largely seen as unsatisfactory. Given the commitment of the Croatian National Bank to implementing a fixed exchange rate policy, it was necessary to analyse the suitability of the current wage setting process in Croatia as an instrument for strengthening export competitiveness of Croatian companies. This was done by applying different econometric methods in order to identify the determinants of wage trends in different groups of sectors (public and overall private sector, as well as the export and other segments of the private sector separately), but also to test for the intersectoral wage linkages. It is expected that public sector wages do affect private sector wages, but also the other way around. What may be especially interesting is the potential leadership role of the section of the private sector oriented on the domestic market, and the pressure wages in this sector may exert on the export-oriented section of the private sector, but also on public sector wages. This would imply the need for more industry-level coordination in the wage bargaining process, which would explicitly consider price and productivity trends in the export-oriented sectors.