Labour Cost Survey

Labour cost statistics informs about the level (hourly, monthly, annually) and composition (gross wages and salaries, employers’ social contributions etc.) of labour costs as well as about the number and structure of jobs (full-time, part-time) and of hours worked (hours actually worked, hours paid) in different sectors, size classes relating to the number of employees and regions of the Austrian economy.

Consideration of labour costs by economic branch reveals a wide spread: At the level of ÖNACE sections, labour costs per hour actually worked (excluding apprentices and other trainees) in “Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply” (€44.59) were more than three times higher than in “Accommodation and food service activities” (€13.58); at the level of ÖNACE divisions they were almost six times higher in “Manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products” (€75.36) than in “Accommodation” (€13.45). Besides the substantial differences from one economic branch to the next, there is a clear connection between the level of the labour costs and the number of persons employed. The more people a survey unit employed, the higher the labour costs: in units of 10 to 49 employees, the hour actually worked costs an average of €22.66; in units of 1 000 and more employees, €30.68. Regionally, labour costs were 10% to 11% higher on average in eastern Austria than in southern and western Austria.

Labour costs in 2008 (excluding trainees) consisted of 74% direct costs and 26% indirect costs. While overall there were only slight differences in the ratio of direct to indirect labour costs between the production sector and the services sector, there were significant fluctuations from the average in ÖNACE sections and divisions. Direct labour costs were well above average in “Motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities” and “Scientific research and development” (77.9% in each case), whereas indirect labour costs were proportionally above average in “Air transport” (35.0%) and “Programming and broadcasting activities” (33.7%). Accordingly, incidental wage costs accounted for a large share in the latter and in “Activities auxiliary to financial service and insurance activities” (56.0% and 54.3% respectively); the incidental wage cost rate (i.e. incidental wage costs as a percentage of performance-linked payment) was also higher than the average here (127.1% and 119.0% respectively). Above-average incidental wage cost ratios were generally recorded in branches with high overall labour costs. The more people a survey unit employed, the higher the proportion of indirect labour costs and incidental wage costs (in units of 10 to 49 employees, 25.1% and 45.7% respectively; in units of 1 000 and more employees, 26.5% and 49.1% respectively).

The 2008 breakdown of the composition of total labour costs (including apprentices and other trainees) shows that, on average, labour costs consisted of 74.1% gross wages and salaries, 23.3% employers’ social contributions, 2.1% taxes, 0.6% costs of vocational training and further education, and 0.3% other expenditure. Subsidies which reduced the labour cost burden accounted for 0.4%. Of the gross wages and salaries, payments made in each period (performance-linked payments) made up 69.8%, payments not incurred with every remuneration 17.4% (essentially 13^th and 14^th monthly salary, bonuses), and remuneration for days not worked 10.6%. Of the social expenditure by employers, statutory social security contributions accounted for the bulk, at 78.2%, followed by continued remuneration in the event of sickness (10.0%), statutory and collectively agreed redundancy payments (“old severance pay scheme”) and severance payments (6.2%) and collectively agreed, contractual and voluntary social security contributions (3.8%). Considered by ÖNACE sections, gross wages and salaries were proportionally the highest in “Education” (77.0%) and in “Human health and social work activities” (75.9%); likewise social security contributions (overall) were the highest in “Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply” (25.6%) and in “Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities” (25.4%). The spread among taxes and duties was less than among the main cost factors. They ranged from 2.5% in “Financial and insurance activities” to 0.4% in “Human health and social work activities”. “Financial and insurance activities” expended the most proportionally (1.1%) on vocational training and further education for its employees, whereas “Construction” spent the least (0.2%).

Due to the revision of statistical classifications of economic activities results of the labour cost survey 2008 based on ÖNACE 2008 are comparable to only a limited extent to the results of the labour cost survey 2004 based on ÖNACE 2003. Labour cost data time series according to ÖNACE 2003 are published under “Labour Cost Statistics (Annual)”.

Results of the labour cost surveys in the other EU member states are published by Eurostat in a publicly available database.

Please consult our German website for tables and charts containing further information.