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Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.

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Average full time adjusted salary per employee (nama_10_fte)

Reference Metadata in Euro SDMX Metadata Structure (ESMS)

Compiling agency: Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

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The ‘average full-time adjusted salaries per employee’ is an indicator calculated by Eurostat. It is requested by the Blue Card Directive adopted on 20 October 2021 as a threshold to be used nationally to grant working permits to high-skilled workers. Practically, the indicator stands for a salary that is sufficient to live decently in a Member State. Such a salary is estimated from the average annual salary for a full-time job.

The indicator is based on two data sources:

  • The regular set of National Accounts data transmitted by the Member States under the European System of Accounts 2010 Transmission Programme (ESA 2010 TP);
  • The EU-Labour Force Survey, conducted by the National Statistical Institutes in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2019/1700.

While users could use similar indicators published nationally, Eurostat provides a ready-to-use indicator with a common methodology and explanatory metadata.

The use of a harmonised method by Eurostat is aimed to increase transparency and cross-country comparability. However, users should be aware that there are different indicators published by the countries or other international organisations that may use partly different sources. While these can be more suited for specific analysis, users are invited to consult the metadata published with the respective indicators to be aware of specific sources, methods and/or assumptions used. See for example links below:

7 January 2025

The method to calculate the ‘Average full-time adjusted salary per employee’ consists of 3 steps:

  1. Calculating the gross average annual salary per employee from data provided in the ESA transmission programme: D11 (wages and salaries in current prices from table nama_10_gdp) divided by SAL (number of Employees domestic concept from table nama_10_pe)Gross average annual salary per employee = D11 / SAL.
  2. Calculating the annual Full-Time Equivalent ratio (FTE_R) from Labour Force Survey: usual weekly hours for full-time employees divided by usual weekly hours for all employees (from tables lfsa_ewhun2 and lfsa_ewhuna).
  3. Average full-time adjusted salary per employee =  D11 / SAL * FTE_R.

Please note that the Full-Time Equivalent ratio (step 2) cannot be estimated from National Accounts (Full-Time Equivalent Employment series are not compulsory in the ESA2010 transmission programme) but can be estimated from the Labour Force Survey (LFS).

The applied methodology has, nevertheless, the following limitations:

  • As weekly hours are only collected for the main job, the denominator of the ratio is slightly underestimated (hours of second and third jobs are not taken into account). Therefore, the ratio is slightly overestimated. However, as only 2.4% of employees have a second job, the impact should be very low.
  • The scope of LFS (national concept) is slightly different from the National Accounts one (domestic concept). Consequently, some units fall out of the scope of LFS, especially workers commuting daily abroad, armed forces and people living in communities, and the impacts may be significant in small countries such as Luxembourg.

However, it also has clear advantages such as:

  • it ensures the comparability of data among 26 Member States as the methodology is the same;
  • it is less biased than alternative methods as it uses only ratios from LFS and not levels;
  • indicator values were checked over a long period: series from 1995 in national currency show trends but neither outliers nor volatility.

The units used in National Accounts data published by Eurostat are, in principle, the local kind-of -activity unit (KAU) or the institutional unit, as defined in ESA 2010. However, deviations might occur where the units used in the received country data are not fully compliant with the ESA 2010 guidelines. For information on the statistical unit, please refer to nama10.

The units used in EU-LFS are persons.

The National Accounts population of a country consists of all resident statistical units (institutional units or local KAUs, see section 3.5).

A unit is a resident unit of a country when it has a centre of predominant economic interest on the economic territory of that country, that is when it engages for an extended period (one year or more) in economic activities on this territory. For more information on statistical population, see nama10.

The EU-LFS results cover the total population usually residing in the Member States, except for persons living in collective or institutional households.

Eurostat publishes the ‘Average full-time adjusted salary per employee’ for all EU Member States except for the Netherlands.

Statistics Netherlands applies a somewhat different methodology than Eurostat, using exhaustive register information on individual persons to calculate the average full-time adjusted salaries.

These data are published on the website StatLine - Compensation of employees, employment; economic activity, National Accounts (cbs.nl).

The reference period is the calendar year.

For EU-LFS data, yearly data are defined building up time periods based on the EU-LFS reference week.

Eurostat assesses the accuracy of national data by systematically applying validation checks to all national accounts transmissions of countries. The accuracy of national accounts estimates is analysed in terms of revisions. For more information, see Section 13 of nama10.

The overall accuracy of the EU-LFS data is considered as high. The EU-LFS is a sample survey with a relatively large sample size. All countries apply a probability sampling. As the EU-LFS data are based on a population sample and are mostly collected by interview, they are subject to the usual types of errors associated with sampling techniques and interviewing. Sampling and non-sampling errors, are calculated for each country and documented in the Quality Report of the European Union Labour Force Survey.

For more information, see also section 13 of employ_esms.

This indicator encompasses the current prices units Euro (EUR) and National currency (NAC).

Eurostat compiles this indicator based on national accounts data and LFS data with harmonised formulae.

Eurostat is responsible for the compilation of this indicator, as well as for its methodology.

This indicator is based on National Accounts data and on LFS data.

This indicator will be updated on an annual basis after the T+9 National Accounts annual data transmission defined in the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) transmission programme.

National Accounts data: Member States are required to transmit their data to Eurostat in compliance with the European System of Accounts ESA 2010 transmission programme. Country data are usually transmitted at the deadlines as defined in the ESA 2010 transmission programme. Some countries transmit their data earlier, others later but not more than a few days. For the computation of the indicator ‘Average full time adjusted salary per employee’, a transmission of annual data is scheduled at T+9 months.

 EU-LFS data: Article 11 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 establishes the timeliness of data transmissions from the National Statistical Institutes as well as the publication deadline of the aggregated data on the Commission (Eurostat) website.

National Accounts data: The comparability is insured by the application of common definitions (European System of Accounts ESA 2010).

 EU-LFS data: Comparability of the EU-LFS across countries is considered as high and is achieved through various regulations ensuring harmonisation of concepts, definitions and methodologies. Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 and its Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2240 further enhance the comparability between countries, with namely the input harmonisation of employment and unemployment. For more information, see section 15.1 of employ_esms

National Accounts data: by using a common framework, the European System of Accounts ESA 2012, data can be comparable over time. In addition, in the case of fundamental changes to methods or classifications, revisions of long-time series are performed, usually going far back into the past.

 

EU-LFS data: From 2021 onwards, Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 provides the new framework for the EU-LFS. Its Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2240 for the labour market domain updates some crucial definitions, including the Eurostat operational definitions of the three ILO labour statuses (employed, unemployed and outside the labour force). The changes in the operational definition and derivation of the labour status can cause breaks in the time series of the LFS indicators. The measurement of the actual working hours has also been further harmonised across countries, which may cause an additional break between 2020 and 2021 in the time series for some countries. See also: EU labour force survey - correction for breaks in time series - Statistics Explained (europa.eu).

For more details on the comparability over time of the LFS data since 1983, please consult: EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - Data and Publication >>> Comparability over time