Finland Times

 

Structure of labour costs in 2012*, sectors total, per cent of total labour costs. Source: Statistics Finland.

The country’s labour cost was, on average, EUR 31.4 per hour work paid by the employers in the year of 2012. 

 

According to the preliminary data of Statistics Finland's Labour Cost Survey, wage and salary costs formed 76.6 per cent, social security costs 21.1 per cent and other costs 2.3 per cent of total labour costs.

 

The cost of an hour worked was highest in the central government sector, EUR 37.5 and in the private sector in manufacturing and construction, EUR 34.1. Labour costs were lowest in the local government sector, EUR 28.9. 

 

The number of hours worked per staff-year is lower in the public sector than in the private sector. This is mainly due to the longer annual leaves in the public sector compared to the private sector.

 

The lower number of hours worked makes the cost calculated for the hour worked higher in the public sector than in the private sector. 

 

In the private sector, the cost level in the manufacturing and construction industries (B-F) is on average clearly higher than in the service sector (G-S). The cost difference is caused by the higher earnings level in manufacturing compared to service industries.

 

The largest portion of labour costs is formed by wage and salary costs that can be divided into direct earnings, remuneration for days off and one-off pay components. 

 

The share of direct earnings, that is the remuneration paid for hours worked, represented 60.8 per cent of labour costs. Remuneration for days off makes up 10.8 per cent of total costs. 

 

The share of one-off pay components in the total costs is 5.0 per cent. One-off pay components include performance-based bonuses, holiday bonuses, seniority increments and other similar bonuses. Their share is higher in the private sector than in the public sector due to higher performance-based bonuses.

 

The data in this release are preliminary. Final data of the Labour Cost Survey will be published on 26 September 2014.