Earnings statistics

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Data from October 2010, most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.

This article analyses the results of the four-yearly Structure of earnings survey (SES) that provides comparable in-depth information at European Union (EU) level on the link between the level of earnings and the individual characteristics of employees (sex, age, occupation, length of service, educational level) and their employer (economic activity, size of the enterprise, etc.).

Earnings statistics vary with regard to periodicity of the data collection (biannual, annual and four-yearly), coverage (economic activity, enterprise size) and units of measurement (hourly, monthly or yearly earnings). Several structural indicators such as the gender pay gap, the low-wage trap or the unemployment trap are based on earnings statistics.

Map 1: Mean gross hourly earnings in Europe, EUR, 2006

Contents

Main statistical findings

Table 1: Mean gross hourly earnings in Europe, EUR, 2006 (1)
Figure 1: Mean gross hourly earnings by educational attainment of the employee, 2006
Table 2: Mean monthly earnings by employment contract, EUR, 2006
Figure 2: Pay differences per month between employees with more than 20 years and employees with less of 6 years service within the enterprise, EUR and %, 2006
Figure 3: Proportion of low-wage earners (full-time employees), 2006
Table 3: Distribution and proportion of low wage earners (full-time employees) by sex and employment contract, %, 2006
Figure 4: Proportion of low wage earners (full-time employees) by educational level, %, 2006
Figure 5: Proportion of low wage earners (full-time employees) in the EU-27 by economic activity, %, 2006

Average gross hourly earnings

Average gross hourly earnings vary by a factor of 1 to 20 between countries in the EU-27

In 2006 in the EU-27, the highest gross hourly wage was recorded in Denmark, with 22.38 EUR, followed by Ireland and the United Kingdom where average earnings were respectively 20.83 EUR and 19.47 EUR per hour (Table 1). The three countries registering the lowest gross hourly wages were Bulgaria (1.11 EUR), Romania (1.87 EUR) and Latvia (2.64 EUR). The gross hourly wage of Norway – at 23.83 EUR per hour – exceeded that of all EU Member States.

In the euro area (EA-16), where employees earned on average 13.99 EUR gross per hour, the top three high-wage countries were Ireland (20.83 EUR), Luxembourg (19.19 EUR) and Belgium (17.45 EUR). The euro area countries registering the lowest gross hourly wages were Slovakia (3.10 EUR), Slovenia (6.75 EUR) and Portugal (7.00 EUR).

Educational level

Education pays off: employees with tertiary education earned twice as much as those with a low level of education

Average hourly earnings of employees having completed tertiary education were at least twice as high (at 18.92 EUR) as wages of employees with a low level of education (9.07 EUR) (Figure 1). Employees with a high level of education were paid the most in Luxembourg (28.01 EUR), Denmark (26.93 EUR) and the United Kingdom (26.77 EUR), while the lowest hourly rates for this type of employees were in Lithuania (3.61 EUR), Romania (2.99 EUR) and Bulgaria (1.66 EUR). However, there are considerable variations between Member States. The largest differences in earnings between employees with low and high educational levels were recorded for Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia (nearly three times greater for highly educated employees), whereas the smallest differences were observed in Denmark, Finland and Sweden (under 1.5 times more).

Type of contract

In the EU-27, employees with indefinite term contracts were 1.5 times better paid than employees with temporary contracts

In the EU-27 in 2006 employees with an indefinite term contract earned 1.52 times more per month than fixed-term contract employees. For the euro area this ratio was 1.43. The highest ratios existed in Denmark (1.46), the Netherlands (1.45) and Poland (1.54). In Estonia (0.91), Greece (0.74), Latvia (0.83) and Lithuania (0.96) fixed term contracts seemed to be more rewarding than indefinite term contracts: their ratios ranged below 1 (Table 2).

Years of service

20 years or more of service with the enterprise compared to less than 6 years makes up to 800 EUR more per month on EU-27 average

A professional experience of 20 years or more within an enterprise increases on EU average monthly earnings by nearly 800 EUR compared to employees whose length of service range between 1 and 5 years (Figure 2). Comparing monthly average earnings of long experienced employees with the ones of colleagues with less than 6 years of service, situation varies considerably across Europe: from 8 EUR difference in Estonia to 1861 EUR in Ireland. In addition to Ireland, high differences were recorded in Luxembourg (1577 EUR), Cyprus (1465 EUR), Austria (1285 EUR), Germany (1258 EUR) and The United-Kingdom (1026 EUR), whereas differences are less remarkable, in addition to Estonia, in Bulgaria (77 EUR), Czech Republic (112 EUR), Lithuania (63 EUR) and Slovakia (62 EUR). In Sweden even, average monthly earnings of employees with long experience were lower by 14 EUR compared to those with less than 6 years of experience. Nevertheless, it should be noted that expressed in percentage points the situation may be different for some countries namely where average hourly wages are relatively low (Figure 4): this is e.g. the case for Bulgaria where the above mentioned 77 EUR represented after all 41% in surplus. On the other hand, the wage increase generated by 20 years of more of service within the enterprise in the United Kingdom of 1026 EUR represented 33%.

Low-wage earners full-time employed

In the EU-27 in 2006, 17% of full-time employees were low-wage earners

Having looked at the general picture of average hourly earnings and the main differences between different categories of employees, this section concentrates on annual earnings. These also include non-regular payments such as annual bonuses, '13th month' 'wages and other irregular work-related allowances which affect final take-home pay. This section looks specifically at low wages. Low wages are defined in relative terms for each country and measured against the national median gross earnings.

A full-time employee is defined as a low-wage earner when his/her annual gross earnings are less than two thirds of the annual full-time median gross earnings. According to this definition, in 2006 low-wage earners accounted for 17.2% of all full-time employees (Full-time employees working in enterprises with 10 employees and more of all economic activities except agriculture, fishing, public administration, private households and extra-territorial organisations ) in the EU-27, and for 14.7% of all full-time employees in the euro area (Figure 3).

Low percentages of low-wage earners (who make up less than 10% of the number of full-time workers) were reported for Finland (6%), Belgium (7%), Denmark (8%) and France (9%).

High percentages of full-time employees who are low-wage earners were found in Latvia (31%), Lithuania (28%), Bulgaria and Romania (27%), Hungary (23%), Poland and the United Kingdom (22%), and in Estonia, Ireland and Cyprus (21%).

Low-wage earning by gender

Higher percentage of low-wage earners among women and persons with a fixed-term contract

In the EU-27 in 2006, 23.1% of all female full-time workers were low-wage earners (20.1% in the euro area), whereas only 13.5% of all male full-time employees were low-wage earners (Table 3). The proportion of female low-wage earners was higher than the proportion of male low-wage earners in all Member States except Hungary. The countries with the highest proportion of female low-wage earners were Cyprus (33.4%), Latvia (32.3%), the United Kingdom (30.6%) and Lithuania (30.1%). Their proportion was the lowest in Finland (8.8%), France (10.6%), Denmark (11.6%), Belgium (12.8%), Malta (13.3%) and Sweden (14.9%).

Low-wage earning by educational attainment and sector

Low-wage earners among employees with low educational attainment and in hotels and restaurants

Not surprisingly, low-wage earners accounted for the highest proportion of employees among workers with a low level of education (28.3%) in the EU-27 (Figure 4). The proportion of employees was 19.0% among workers with a medium educational level but only 5.9% among those having completed a higher level of education.

For some countries the proportion of low-wage earners with low educational level was relatively high (above 40%). This is the case for Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. By contrast, in Finland, the proportion of low-wage earners with low education was only 9.2%. Ireland had the highest proportion of low-wage earners among those holding a university degree (13.8%).

In the EU-27, hotels and restaurants (Figure 5) was the economic activity with the highest proportion of low-wage earners (40.9%). The lowest proportion of low-wage earners was in energy (4.1%), followed by mining and quarrying (4.6%) and financial services (5.3%).

Data sources and availability

The Structure of earnings survey (SES) is carried out with a four-yearly periodicity according to Regulation 530/1999. The most recent available reference years for the SES are 2002 and 2006 (next survey: reference year 2010). The data collection is based on legislation and data become available approximately 2 years after the end of the reference period.

National statistical offices collect the information on earnings used in the survey and it contains questions about the enterprise and on the individual employee, aiming to gather individual data on earnings and working hours, as well as personal characteristics and characteristics of the jobs.

The statistics of the SES refer to enterprises with at least 10 employees in the areas of economic activity defined by sections C-K of NACE Rev.1.1. The inclusion of section L is, as is the inclusion of enterprises with fewer than 10 employees.

The economic activity is coded using NACE Rev. 1.1, the Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Communities.

The occupation is coded according to the International standard classification of occupations, 1988 - ISCO-88 (COM).

The variable 'Highest successfully completed level of education and training' is classified using the International standard classification of education, 1997 version (ISCED 97).

The regional breakdown is based on the Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) valid for reference year 2006.

The statistics cover all economic activities defined in sections C to K and M to O of NACE Rev. 1.1 in enterprises with at least 10 employees. Some countries are able to provide data for NACE section L. The size of the enterprise in terms of the number of employees corresponds to the following size classes: 1 to 9, 10 to 49, 50 to 249, 250 to 499, 500 to 999, and 1 000 or more employees. The size class 1 to 9 is optional.

Context

The main reasons for initiating the European Structure of earnings survey (SES) were set out in *Regulation 530/1999 of 9 March 1999 concerning structural statistics on earnings and on labour costs. The objective of the Regulation 530/1999 and the related Commission Regulation 1738/2005 in this domain is to provide accurate and harmonised data on earnings in EU Member States, EFTA countries and candidate countries for policy-making and research purposes.

The SES is a large enterprise sample survey providing detailed and comparable information on relationships between the level of remuneration, individual characteristics of employees (sex, age, occupation, length of service, highest educational level attained, etc.) and their employer (economic activity, size and location of the enterprise).

Users of the SES want to determine the earnings received by employees and to investigate the statistical relationship between the level of the earnings and the individual characteristics of the employees and the characteristics of the employer.

The SES represents a rich microdata source for European policy-making and research purposes. Access to microdata is granted to researchers according to specific conditions and respecting statistical confidentiality.

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Main tables

Earnings
click: Main tables
Earnings (t_earn)
Gender pay gap in unadjusted form in % (tsiem040)

Database

Earnings
click: Database
Earnings (earn)
Structure of earnings survey 2006 (earn_ses06)
Gender pay gap in unadjusted form (earn_grgpg)

Dedicated section

Source data for tables, figures and maps on this page (MS Excel)

Methodology / Metadata

Other information

External links

See also

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