Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic

Labour and Education Statistics Department

Lamacska cesta 3/C,

P.O.BOX 17,

840 05 Bratislava,

Slovak Republic 

During 2021, the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic carried out the Labour Cost Survey 2020 (LCS2020). It followed after similar surveys which had been conducted for the years 1996 - 2019.

Methodology of the current survey, being developed on the basis of Eurostat´s recommendations,  is directly linked and fully complies with the Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 concerning structural statistics on earnings and on labour costs, the Commission Regulation (EC) No 1737/2005 concerning the definition and transmission of information on labour costs, the Commission Regulation (EC) No 698/2006 concerning quality evaluation on labour costs statistics. The requirements of the Slovak goverment and its central bodies have been also taken into consideration. 

The territorial classification complies with the latest nomenclature of territorial statistical units (NUTS 2013). In Slovakia, requested NUTS 1 level corresponds to the national level, so the country code is used.     

The size of the enterprise, in terms of number of employees, is classified to one of the following bands: 1 to 9 (optional), 10 to 49, 50 to 249, 250 to 499, 500 to 999, 1000 and more employees.

The classification of labour cost items fully complies with the Appendix to Annex II of the Commission Regulation (EC) No 1737/2005.

Data are broken down by economic activity at 1-digit and 2-digit level in accordance with NACE Rev. 2 - Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community. The optional section O is covered as well.

Labour costs refer to the total expenditure borne by employers for the purpose of employing staff. They include employee compensation, which is mainly comprised of gross wages and salaries in cash and in kind and employers' social security contributions, vocational training costs, other expenditure, such as recruitment costs and spending on working clothes, and employment taxes regarded as labour costs minus subsidies received.

These labour cost components and their elements are defined in Commission Regulation (EC) No 1737/2005 of 21 October 2005, implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 concerning structural statistics on earnings and labour costs as regards the definition and transmission of information on labour costs.

The labour cost structure corresponds to ratio of the different components of the total labour costs and is given as a percentage of the overall value of labour costs.

Hourly labour costs are annual labour costs divided by the number of hours worked during the reference year.

Monthly labour costs per employee are the annual labour costs divided by 12 and by the average number of employees during the year (converted into full-time equivalents).

The statistical unit is the local unit.

The whole population of local units.

The whole territory of Slovakia, all sections B to S of NACE Rev.2 and all statistical units occupying 1 and more employees are covered.

Data have been available at the harmonised EU level every four years from reference year 2000, at national level annualy from 1996.

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Sample that has been chosen from the reference population consists of 8 086 local units. It represents 9.9% of the sample frame that has been established on the base of the Register of local units. Sample fractions range between 1.8% for small-size units with less than 10 employees and more than 88%  coverage for big-size units with 500 and more employees (table 1 in annex). From the NACE point of view (table 2 in annex), the biggest share in the sample close to one third out of the number of units in the section has been chosen in small activities of electricity, gas supply, mining and quarrying as well as in more substantial education activities. The biggest share in number of units belongs to the most important branch of manufacturing as well as in trade and in education within services.

Data are collected annually at national level and four-yearly for EU needs.

Data collection runs by making use of electronic questionnaires. Data are collected on the basis of stratified random sample of local units. The stratification is based on economic activity at 1-digit level of NACE Rev. 2, size category according to number of employees and region at 3-digit level of NUTS.

Data validation is undertaken at the levels of collection, processing and disseminating data. Sets of global checks are used to validate completness of information, correct coding and formats in each of the surveys. Plausibility checks are used to verify correctness of values and logical relations among variables. If errors in completeness or reliability of the data file are apparent, the reporting units are contacted to complete or correct information.

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Data are checked for completeness and consistency. Specific quality assurance activities comprising compliance monitoring, benchmarking and training are used.

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The key users of the survey results are, as follows:

Multinational institutions (e.g. Eurostat, ILO, OECD, World Bank) to compile harmonized comparisons of labour cost components at international level as a basis for adopting appropriate decisions by employment and social policy-makers;

Government and central bodies to improve wage policy at macroeconomic level;

Regional bodies to monitor differences in labour costs at regional level;

Trade unions to measure gaps among occupations and sex and to examine share of social costs in order to control of keeping the employees' rights;

Employer’s associations to compare situation in level and structure of labour costs among employers;

Researchers and statisticians to analyse labour costs according to various classifications;

Media to inform public on situation and trends in expenditures relating to employees.   

Currently, there are no information on any lower level of user satisfaction concerning completeness (units, variables, breakdowns), accuracy or timeliness of this statistics.

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Coefficients of variation have been calculated and broken down according to the structure of Tables A and B that had been disseminated to Eurostat. Table C was not compiled, as it would be duplicity with Table A. Regional data at required NUTS 1 level refers to the whole territory of the Slovak Republic.

Table 3 in annex shows coefficients of variation broken down by size band. Figures are very small in general. The highest CV values (1.7% for annual labour costs and 1.1% for hourly labour costs) relate to the small-size units with less than 10 employees. It reflects higher degree of earnings diversity in this size category of employers. Moreover, these units are less covered by sample.

The values of coefficients of variation classified by economic activities are low in all sections of NACE Rev.2 (table 4 in annex). They are below 1.5% for annual labour costs and below 0.7% for hourly labour costs. The highest figures were calculated for real estate activities, accommodation and food services, mining and quarrying due to bigger differences in a small sample of units with less than 10 employees. The total CV value amounts to 0.2% as regards annual labour costs and amounts to 0.04% concerning hourly labour costs.

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Table 5 and table 6 in annex demonstrate over and under-coverage errors referring to the sampled units wrongly classified in the frame. Comparison is strictly limited to particular size band or the NACE section.  

Values of under/over-coverage according to the size-structure were small in most of the size groups. It ranged between   -1.1% in units from 10 to 49 employees up to 4.4% in units from 50 to 249 employees. On the other hand, about one tenth of the the smallest units up to 9 employees were under-covered and on the contrary about one tenth of he biggest units with 1 000 and more employees were over-covered.

As regards the breakdown according to NACE Rev. 2 sections, there is no error in two sections (transportation and storage; financial and insurance activities). Almost two thirds of sections are under-covered, most of them between 1-2%. In the majority of other cases, the over-coverage was recorded ranging between 0.2-3.9%. More significant differences between the reference and the study population, expressed in relative figures, appeared particularly in sections with a small number of firms such as mining and quarrying or electricity, gas and water supplies. On the other hand, when comparing in absolute terms, there are bigger differences in the big-size branches of industry, construction or professional and technical activities and education in services.

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First version of the survey instrument (questionnaire) was designed in 1994 for purpose of the pilot survey. Since 1996 it has been developed according to requirements of domestic and foreign users. Explanatory notes are inseparable and important part of the questionnaire. It was adjusted step by step as reaction to the problems with filling.

Misunderstanding for responding units related mainly to decision which accounts should be used for data obtaining. Therefore, in problematic cases recommended account numbers were supplemented to the questionnaire. Definitions of variables (especially concerning employment and some indirect costs, e.g. travel costs) were described in more detail to improve their clarity. Variables referring to working time and wages (salaries) are not problematic since respondents know them from the regular enterprise surveys.   

Respondents’ errors resulted from wrong data inputting that occurs during phase of filling in electronic questionnaire.

Main errors made by respondents:

• wrong aggregations of labour cost components in the questionnaire
• infilling of some variables in the questionnaire
• wrong calculation of variables in the questionnaire e.g. average number of employees
• false filling in the identification codes of units for economic activities, legal form or kind of ownership

These errors have been identified and corrected through complex of software controls before data processing. Checks relate to subset of data on staff employed, hours worked, paid hours and labour costs.

Examples of checks referring to labour costs:

a)    obligatory control that must be corrected

• direct remuneration must be more than 0,
• bonuses can be only equal or more than 0,
• total number of employees must be more than 0,

b)    logical control that must be corrected

• payments to health insurance scheme must be less than statutory social security contributions,
• if number of apprentices is more than 0 than wages and salaries of apprentices must be more than 0,
• hours worked by full-time employees must be less or equal to hours worked by all employees,

c)    arithmetical control that must be corrected

• compensation of employees plus vocational training costs plus other expenditure plus taxes less subsides must be equal to total labour costs,
• number of full- and part-time employees plus number of apprentices is equal to total staff employed,

d)    information control that should be verified

• direct remuneration is outside the test limits derived from the range of most occurrence of employees that was measured within the current enterprise survey on labour,
• paid hours per week is more than 40.

After completing and checking questionnaires, 8086 units were included to be processed. Response rate represents 91.9% (7306 processed unitsx100/8036 sampled units). Sample covers about 970thousand employees being about 40% of the total employment in Slovakia.

Table 7 in annex shows the response rates according to economic activity and size of unit.

The lowest figures about 90% were achieved in medium firms with 10-49 employees and in big-size units with 1 000 and more employees. The most willing to answer were units up to 9 employees and with 250 – 499 employees, where the response rate exceeded 97%.

As regards economic activities, response rate ranged mostly between 91-96%. Exceptions were trade, information and communication and administrative services with the lowest value between 80 - 83% and on the contrary the 100% in arts and in other service activities. The best values above 98% refer to units operating in water supply, real estate and in education.

Difficulties with completing electronic questionnaires were consulted with the respective responding units. Incomplete questionnaires were complemented by phone. Non-response in the first round was treated by sending remainders with new returning term.Those of thequestionnaires, which remained uncompleted because of impossibility to obtain missing data, were excluded. 133 companies were not included due to failure to report current changes in the reference year (bankruptcy, liquidation, change of address, dismissal of all employees, etc.) to the Business register.

Data collection in 2021 required increased efforts as the Covid-19 pandemic continued. For many companies, 2020 was not a standard year and was marked by a temporary interruption of their operations. For several of them, e.g. in the accommodation and food services or in art and recreation activities, the difficult situation continued in 2021.

Imputation has not been applied.

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Adjustment from fiscal year to calendar year

Data collected relate to calendar year.

Small enterprises

Small enterprises with less than 10 employees were included.

Combination of data from administrative sources and survey

All data were gathered through the survey.

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The length of time between the release of data to Eurostat and the reference period of the data was 16 months. 

11 months after the reference year at national level.

16 months after the reference year (outputs for Eurostat).

Data-collection phase:

• selection and compilation of representative sample from the register – 25 January 2021;
• delivery of a package to the respondents, including covering letter, questionnaire, list of codes and classifications – 26 March 2021;
• legal deadline for response – 30 April 2021;
• 1^st round of data collection – 5 May 2021;
• delivery of reminder to the non-response units - 27 April 2021;
• new deadline for response - 14 May 2021;

Post-collection phase:

• coding input data, checking completeness and accuracy of data, correction of errors, completing database - 30 June 2021;
• data processing, compilation of the sample output tables - 30 July 2021;
• realisation of grossing-up procedures - 14 September 2021;

Publication phase:

• issue of publication Total Labour Costs in 2016 (Slovak-English version) - 30 November 2021;

Transmission phase:

• transcodification procedure, recalculating data and input harmonised data into required transmission formats for Eurostat – 19 April 2022;
• data transmission to Eurostat via EDAMIS - 20 April 2022.

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Since the LCS 1996 all economic activities (sections A - O of NACE Rev. 1) and all size classes of enterprises have been covered. In 2006 a TF project was launched in order to improve quality of data in some branches. Classification NACE Rev. 2 was implemented in 2008.

All compulsory variables were provided. A number of values concerning some NACE divisions broken down by some size classes of enterprises has been to zero, since there were no responding units in the sample or due to non-response.

The outputs were transmitted according to structure of tables A and B in required formats. Since regional data at required NUTS 1 level refer to the whole territory of the Slovak Republic, the table C was not compiled. It fully corresponds to table A.

Partial differences in the national structure of the labour costs in comparison with the EU target methodology result from the specific character of the Slovak wage system. For example, bonuses based on profit and bonuses for being on call to work are in Slovakia direct costs, but they are not included into wages or for example meal tickets, transport costs, payments into trade union funds are not included into wages in kind, as they are considered to be social benefits.

However these distinctions do not mean a problem as two sets of the survey outputs are used to be produced. Firstly, tables which reflect demand of Slovak users were calculated and published following structure of labour costs that is applicable in Slovakia. The second set of outputs was recalculated according to the Regulation N^o 1737/2005 in order to be fully comparable with data coming from the other Member States.

Distinction in definition of variables concerns A121 „Part-time employees converted into full-time units“. According to methodology applied in the Slovak reporting system the number of employees in FTU includes part-time as well as full-time employees (full-time employee = 1, part-time employee = respective ratio less than 1 according to working time). In order to avoid double counting of full-time employees, in case of Slovakia, the number of employees in FTU = A121 (instead of A11 + A121). Results for national users reflect this difference. However, the file with the 2020LCS transmitted to Eurostat fully complies with target methodology, incl. definition of the number of employees in FTU (i.e. full-time employees were deducted).

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The pilot survey in 1994 covered only profit enterprises. On the basis of the Council Regulation (EC) N^o 23/97, the regular survey was launched in 1997 (1996LCS) for the reference year 1996. It covered all economy and all size-classes of enterprises. The local kind-of-activity unit was set to be the statistical unit. Since the 1996LCS, the sample outputs have been grossed-up to the universe. The surveys, which had been carried out in the period 2000 – 2003, were modified according to the Council Regulation (EC) N^o  530/1999 and to the Commission Regulation (EC) N^o 1726/1999.

Before 2004, a type of statistical unit did not fully comply respective provision of the target methodology. After establishing register of local units, the local kind-of-activity unit has been replaced with the local unit beginning from the 2004LCS. Scope of the sample has been extended from 880 units in 1994 up to 2 450 in 2004. Since 2004, the survey fully complies the Commission Regulation (EC) N^o 1737/2005. 

Length of comparable time-series is 17 years.

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All statistical information collected, processed and released by the Statistical Office of the SR is regulated by the Law on State Statistics (No.540/2001 Digest of Laws). This Law obliges the office to regularly inform the public about the socio-economic and demographic development, to provide statistical information and publish statistical publications. Defines the secrecy and confidential data protection. Without the approval of legal or physical persons providing the relevant confidential data, these data cannot be published or announced to anybody or used for other than statistical purposes.

An advance release calendar of the survey results is disseminated on the Internet website of the Statistical Office of the SR (http://www.statistics.sk) and in the „Catalogue of publications“. The Catalogue of Publications provides basic information about the issued publications, release dates, language versions and distribution channels. It covers overview of all publications that the Office and the Regional Offices plan to publish in the relevant year. In the introduced titles the results of statistical surveys, censuses and public opinion polls are presented. Besides the list of publications, the Catalogue contains a range of additional information, e.g. the date of publication, periodicity, the address and way of ordering. The Catalogue is issued in Slovak-English version and it is displayed on the Office´s website in the part "Products". 

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Results of the LCS2020 were released in 2021 in the bilingual publication (SK/EN) titled Total Labour Costs in the SR 2020. Tables and charts were backed up with methodological explanations containing basic characteristics of published data and definitions of basic indicators. Basic characteristics include all necessary information for correct interpretation of data and their assessment (data source, way of surveying, methods of data compilation etc.). Key information on annual national data were issued also in the Statistical Yearbook 2020.

Publications referred to the Catalogue of Publications are available for free download in PDF format at the website of the Statistical office of the SR (www.statistics.sk, in the sector Products / Publications of the Catalogues) on the date of their publication.

All data released at the Internet portal including the database DATAcube are free of charge. Data processed by individual requirements of customers (tailored to needs) and retrievals from non-public databases of the Office are available for payment according to the Price list of Information Services of the SO SR. More information can be found at www.statistics.sk, in the sector Services / Information services / Price List of Information Services of the SO SR.

Users have been informed on the Offices website how to access the data in the on-line database DATAcube and in electronic publication.

Key results are available on the Offices website in the on-line database called DATAcube. All the data are free of charge. Data are presented in the form of multidimensional tables in monthly, and yearly time series and allow to create users own selections. At the end of the title of each table there is eight-digit code, which is the unique identifier. The outputs can be exported to file formats: PDF and XLS.

The data accessible to system users are the intellectual property of the Statistical Office of the SR and are protected by the law of authorship. It is necessary to refer to the Statistical Office of the SR, the database DATAcube as a source when using any data of the database DATAcube in own works and documents.

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Dissemination format of the LCS2020 results fully respects article 3.3. on technical format and transmission of the data of the document “ Labour Cost Survey 2020 Eurostat’s arrangements for implementing the Council Regulation 530/1999 and the Commission Regulation 1737/2005 (September 2021)”.

Publication titled “Total Labour Costs in the SR 2020” includes, as it is mentioned above, besides tables and charts also methodological explanations containing basic characteristics of published data and definitions of basic indicators. Basic characteristics include all necessary information for correct interpretation of data and their assessment (data source, way of surveying, methods of data compilation etc.).

Information on methodology is involved in the quality report on LCI, which is prepared on annual basis.

Definition of the indicators on direct, indirect and total labour costs is a part of Vocabulary that is available on the Internet website of the Statistical Office of the SR (http://www.statistics.sk), in the Sector Metadata.

Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic holds certificate, which confirms that the Office meets requirements of the international standard ISO 9001:2015 in organising, obtaining, processing and providing official statistics according to the current standards. At the same time it provides the evidence that the quality management system implemented in the Office creates appropriate conditions for further improvement of quality of services provided to users and for development of the Office towards higher effectiveness. In addition, the LCI statistics fully respect the provisions of the European Statistics Code of Practice.

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Research institutions, especially universities and other higher education organizations or research institutions

may have granted access to the confidential statistical data for scientific purposes. Statistical Office of the SR shall provide access to the confidential statistical data either by sending data to research institutions or allowing access to Safe centre of the SO SR.

SO SR shall grant access when the contract on providing confidential statistical data for scientific purposes between the research institution and the SO SR, which specifies conditions for access to the data, obligations of the contract parties, measures to ensure statistical confidentiality and penalties for violation of these obligations, was signed. Microdata are sent to research institutions in form of anonymized dataset, i.e. protected such that re-identification risk is minimized and maximum possible information value is preserved.

The Law on State Statistics defines the secrecy and confidential data protection. Without the approval of responding units providing the relevant individual data, this information cannot be published or announced to anybody or used for other than statistical purposes.

Safe centre:

Just direct identifiers are removed from microdata available via Safe centre; other statistical disclosure control methods are applied to the researchers’ outputs. The information loss in microdata is therefore equal to zero, in the outputs it is proportionate to the re-identification risk. Researchers working with the microdata in the Safe centre are led to make such outputs that do not need to be protected (due to no risk of re-identification).

Microdata transmission:

Microdata are sent to research institutions in form of anonymized dataset. Especially some of these methods are applied:

global recode – several categories of a grouping variable are aggregated;

suppression – identifying value is suppressed;

top/bottom coding – extreme values are replaced by some open interval;

swapping – values between respondents are exchanged;

microaggregation – numerical value is changed by a mean value.

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