Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

Labour market statistics division         

Registered employment, earnings and labour costs statistics unit

5 Milana Rakića, Belgrade

From 2018, data on index of gross wages and salaries are derived from administrative sources.

The source of data is the records of the Tax Administration, which is based on the data collected through the electronic form of Individual tax return on accrued taxes and contributions (PPP-PD form). The data represent average wages and salaries per employee expressed as the full-time equivalent (FTE).

Classification of Activities (2010), which was adopted by the Government, based on the Law on Classification of Activities (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 104/09), on the basis of regulation as of 29 July 2009 (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 54/10). This classification is comparable with the classification of activities of the European Union (NACE Rev. 2).

Activity coverage: All sections required under the provisions of (EBS) Regulation (EU) 2019/2152: industry, construction, retail trade and other services are covered.

Size coverage: All size classes. 

Wages and salaries include all payments to employees to which the corresponding taxes and social security contributions are paid (gross earnings).

Wages and salaries include:

• payments for work with full, shorter than full or longer than full-time working hours (overtime),
• allowances for on-call, night and shift work, work on Sundays and public holidays,
• enhanced wages and salaries, remunerations and other income to which taxes and contributions on wages and salaries are paid,
• earnings based on the employee's contribution to the business success of the employer (awards, bonuses),
• food allowances during work and holiday allowance,
• allowances for hours not worked (annual vacation, paid leave, public holidays, sick leave up to 30 days, absence due to vocational training, a standstill in work not caused by workers’ guilt, compensation because employee is temporarily prevented from working, and compensation is paid by the employer from the first to the last day),
• a gift for children for New Year above the non-taxable amount,
• and other earnings based on employment in accordance with the general act and the employment contract.

Payments above the non-taxable amount for the following items are also included:

• compensation of travel costs to and from work,
• daily allowances for business trip in the country or abroad,
• compensation for accommodation expenses on a business trip,
• compensation of travel expenses on а business trip,
• solidarity aids,
• jubilee awards.

Mention payments are included in accordance with Methodology of Short-term Statistics (according to the national definition of earnings these payments are not included in earnings).

Entrepreneurs and their employees, persons who work on the basis of a contract for performing temporary or occasional jobs, as well as of employees of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia are also included.

The statistical unit is any accrued type of income that has the character of earnings and which is reported by a legal entity or physical person through the PPP-PD form, regardless whether that income relates to employees with indefinite or fixed-term employment contract or employees in temporary or occasional employment.

All business entities from the Statistical Business Register (SBR) that submitted an electronically filled-in tax return form (PPP-PD form) with accrued salaries and wages to the Tax Administration are included in the survey.

In order to obtain data on average salaries and wages, only accrued types of income that have the character of earnings are taken into account, for which, in addition to taxes, contributions on earnings are also accrued. If more than one type of income is calculated for one person, of one or more payers, each type of income is considered separately in order to be classified according to the characteristics of the recipient, and according to the characteristics of the payers.

Other payments that have the character of earnings (the difference in earnings of a person in public office, contributions to earnings without accrued earnings, a gift to children for New Year and Christmas – above a non-taxable amount) are included in the earnings of the recipient only in cases when the basic salary is accrued.

Salaries and wages of employees who are sent to work abroad are not covered by this survey.

Republic of Serbia. Starting from 1999 the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia has not at disposal and may not provide available certain data relative to AP Kosovo and Metohija and therefore these data are not included in the coverage for the Republic of Serbia (total).

Activities outside the geographical coverage are not included.

Data are available since the 1st quarter of 2000. For the whole period, data are classified by CA 2010, which corresponds to the NACE Rev. 2. For the period 2000-2010 data were estimated by activities.

2021=100

Indices (2021 = 100)

The results on wages and salaries, by the national definition, are published monthly, in absolute values and as indices, in different breakdowns then STS indicators. The STS time series as a base indices are not published nationally.

Quarter

National legislation:

  - Official Statistics Law

  - Resolution on the Programme of official statistics

  - Regulation on the Plan of official statistics for the current year

  - The above documents are available at SORS website: www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/o-nama/dokumenti

EU Legislation:

- The European Parliament and Council adopted the European Business Statistics (EBS) Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on 27 November 2019, followed by the Commission Implementing Regulation 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to the mentioned EBS Regulation (General Implementing Act).

- Regulation (EC) 1893/2006 establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Rev. 2

- Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics

Wages and salaries according to the STS definition are delivered only to Eurostat, while wages and salaries according to the national definition are delivered to ILO, IMF, World Bank, UNECE and UNIDO.

Data confidentiality is stipulated by:

- Official Statistics Law (Official Gazette of RS, number 104/2009), Articles 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49 (http://www.stat.gov.rs/media/2322/zakon_o_statisticie.pdf)

- Rulebook on statistical data protection in the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia and 

- Guidelines on measures of data and information protection in the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (https://www.stat.gov.rs/en-us/o-nama/dokumenti/pravilnici-i-uputstva/pravilnici-i-uputstva/)

Confidential data are treated according to the confidentiality related policy rules. See Official statistics law.

Calendar of releases is available at SORS website on the 1st day of December every year for the forthcoming year (http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/calendar).

All SORS releases are launched at 12.00.

Any divergence from the defined time schedule are announced in advance and explained in the Calendar.  

Calendar of releases is available at SORS website: http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/calendar

The data obtained through statistical surveys are released at the internet presentation (http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/), in the database, in statistical releases and publications (http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/publikacije/). 

The results of official statistics are available at the same time to all users on impartial basis; any privileged access by external users before their release is not allowed.   

The results on wages and salaries, by the national definition, are published monthly, in different breakdowns then STS indicators. The STS time series are not currently being published nationally, but they are processed and transmitted to Eurostat quarterly.

Statistical releases

• Statistical releases
• Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Serbia
• Municipalities and regions of the Republic of Serbia
• Monthly Statistical Bulletin
• Trends
• Statistical Pocketbook of the Republic of Serbia

Database

On request, the access to anonymized microdata is ensured to scientific and research institutions.

The request can be placed by email at stat@stat.gov.rs, or by regular mail addressed at 

5 Milana Rakića St, Belgrade.

For more information, please see  http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/korisnicka-podrska/micropodaci.

Additional data processing is done at the user's request, if necessary for the analysis, studies, reports or for policy makers.

The data are transmitted to Eurostat in requested formats.

All methodological documentation can be found on the official website http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-us/istrazivanja/methodology-and-documents/.

Quality report for this indicator is not required.

The SORS quality management system is relied on the Serbian official statistics mission and vision, as well as on the European Statistics Code of Practice – CoP and the Total Quality Management – TQM principles, which together make the common quality framework of the European Statistical System (ESS).

For more information, please see the documents at  http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/o-nama/sistem-upravljanja-kvalitetom.

Data on earnings index are based on reliable data from appropriate administrative sources. Before publishing and sending data to Eurostat, extensive mathematical and logical control of data is performed.

A comparative analysis of data on average salaries and wages obtained through the Monthly statistical survey RAD-1 and the data from the Tax Administration records for 2016 and 2017 showed high compliance of data. This confirms quality of data obtained by the RAD-1 survey (which is used as a source of data on salaries and wages until 2018), as well as quality of data from the Tax Administration records (PPP-PD form), which is used as a source of data on average salaries and wages starting from 2018.

The use of administrative sources for obtaining data on average salaries and wages is in line with international recommendations, standards and practices.

The national users are: Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Economy and other state and local government bodies, National Bank, Pension Fund, trade unions, enterprises, scientific and academic institutions, the media, the courts, individual persons (e.g. students, researchers, court experts), etc.

International users are Eurostat, OECD, ILO, IMF, World Bank, UNECE, UNIDO, individual experts or persons.

On biennial basis (once in two years), by the means of web interview, implemented is the User Satisfaction Survey. The survey results are available at SORS website: http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/o-nama/sistem-upravljanja-kvalitetom

All levels of detail that are required by the Regulations concerning STS are produced. The national definition of wages and salaries is different, but for calculating STS indicators, definition of wages and salaries was adapted as required by EU regulations. In contrast to the national definition of earnings, wages and salaries in this survey also include amounts of compensation of travel costs to and from work, daily allowances for business trip in the country or abroad, compensation for accommodation expenses on a business trip, compensation of travel expenses on а business trip, as well as solidarity aids, jubilee awards, which are paid above the non-taxable amount. These compensations are not included in the national definition of earnings because the corresponding social security contributions are not paid, while the tax is paid only on the amount above the non-taxable part.

The survey is based on data from administrative sources, which ensures high level of coverage and data quality.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Data are transmitted to Eurostat according the deadline, not later than three months after the reference quarter.

The given deadlines are respected.

The data on wages and salaries which are sent to Eurostat are harmonized with Regulation 1503/2006 and differs from the national definition of earnings (see section 12.3. Completeness). There is no deviation from European concepts concerning the classification used, statistical unit’s and time period.

Until 2018, the survey was carried out on the basis of the Monthly survey on employees and their salaries and wages (RAD-1). However, in recent years, following recommendations and guidelines of Eurostat, SORS intensified efforts in order to use administrative sources when conducting statistical surveys, whenever possible. To this end, from January 2018, the earnings index is calculated on the basis of data from the Tax Administration records, which are collected through the electronic form of Individual tax return on accrued taxes and contributions (PPP-PD).

Time series break occurred in 2018 due to the change of data source (statistical survey was abolished and data from tax administration began to be used).

For now, data from the records of the Tax Administration are the only source of data on wages and salaries, based on accounting records. Therefore compatibility with data from other sources is not done.

Data are coherent. See section 11.2. Quality management - assessment.

Data are taken from administrative sources (Tax Administration records), thus reducing the survey costs to a minimum. Also, the reporting units are no longer obligated to fill in and submit data.

The general SORS revision policy determines:

- general rules of revisions of the published data,

- forms of informing users as regards the possible causes of revisions,

- categories of revisions, and

- documents covering all aspects of revisions.

 The general SORS revision policy is available at https://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/o-nama/dokumenti/politike/politike.

The same revision policy is applied nationally and to the STS data transmitted to Eurostat.

Meaning that the data on earnings are final and as such are transmitted in Eurostat. Earnings indices for STS are not published national level.

Calendar for data revision does not exist.

Once published, data on gross wages and salaries are final and not subject to revision.

• Ministry of Finance – Tax Administration, Individual tax return on accrued taxes and contributions (PPP-PD form)
• Statistical Business Register (SBR)

Data are collected monthly but they are processed for the quarter.

Data from Tax Administration. Tax Administration's data are transmitted electronically, through web service, i.e. FTP service (File Transfer Protocol), via a secured network of the Administration of General Affairs of government bodies of the Republic of Serbia. Data are taken on the 15th day of the month.

Data from SBR. Data on economic activity, type of ownership and status of a business entity (which determines whether a business entity is a legal entity or not) are taken from the SBR database.

Since the data on the earnings index are based on the same data source as the data on average monthly salaries and wages in the Republic of Serbia, the criteria for the first level of data validation for this indicator are contained in the criteria for controlling data on average earnings. This control consists of the following stages:

• Contingent control is conducted (comparison of number of records, mass of accrued salaries and wages and number of recipients for current and previous month is performed);
• Comparison and analysis of data on the number of business entities and employees from the registers of CRCSI, SBR and TA are performed;
• The contingent of records that meets the established criteria enters the processing of data on average salaries and wages;
• In the contingent of records which is allocated for the processing of data on average salaries and wages, control and analysis of relevant data is carried out in order to identify potential errors and check the data quality;
• Extreme values (outliers) are detected and excluded.

Data checks are performed by automated procedures and by experts’ data analysis. Data is compared with data from the previous period.

About 3% of records are excluded from the contingent allocated to the processing of data on average salaries and wages. These records do not fully meet the requirements necessary to be taken into account when calculating average earnings (tax return records that do not contain all the necessary elements of earnings: tax, contribution, net earnings as well as outliers).

After controlling all data related to wages and salaries, which were received from the Tax Administration, the data on the basis of which the wages and salary indices for the STS are calculated, are transferred to a separate database. In that database, the harmonization of data is done in accordance with the definition of earnings for STS business statistics and indices are calculated after that.

Before sending data to Eurostat, additional mathematical and logical control of the final results is carried out.

The data, obtained from the Tax Administration, are stored in a separate database in which the preparation and transformation of data is done in accordance with the STS Methodology. After that the wages and salaries indices are calculated.

Data delivered to Eurostat are:

•           Working day adjusted, not seasonally adjusted,

•           Working day adjusted and seasonally adjusted (Starting from 2021).

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