Comparable EU-wide labour cost statistics

SUMMARY OF:

Regulation (EC) No 450/2003 concerning the labour cost index

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE REGULATION?

Its aim is to establish common rules for the production, transmission and evaluation of comparable labour cost* indices (LCIs) in the European Union (EU).
LCIs measure the cost of labour as a factor in production.

KEY POINTS

Coverage

LCIs cover all businesses, whatever the number of employees, and all economic activities covered by the EU’s statistical classification of economic activities, NACE*, apart from agriculture, forestry and fishing, private households and overseas organisations.
The first compilation of data for the LCI are compiled according to NACE Rev. 2 (i.e. the latest version of the NACE classification) was for the first quarter of 2009. Thereafter, they have been collected for each quarter of each year.

Data sources

On a quarterly basis, EU countries’ statistical institutions gather data from various samples that they carry out, as well as from administrative records kept on businesses. They must transmit these data to the European Commission (Eurostat) within 70 days of the end of the quarter concerned.
LCIs must be provided separately for the 3 labour cost categories that follow:
- total labour costs;
- wages and salaries;
- employers’ social contributions and taxes paid by the employer, minus subsidies received by the employer.

Quality assurance

Eurostat checks all LCI data that EU countries transmit for completeness and consistency.

Committee

The European Statistical System Committee composed of national experts assists and advises the Commission, including on draft legislation.

Report

Every 2 years, the Commission submits a report on the regulation’s implementation to the European Parliament and the Council. This report assesses the quality of the transmitted LCI series data and the quality of the transmitted back data (i.e. data for the period running from the first quarter of 2000 to the fourth quarter of 2008).

FROM WHEN DOES THE REGULATION APPLY?

It has applied since 2 April 2003.

BACKGROUND

The labour cost index shows the short-term development of labour costs and the total costs on an hourly basis of employing labour for the entire economy or various subsectors.

For more information, see:

‘Labour costs’ on the Eurostat website.

* KEY TERMS

Labour costs: the core costs to employers of employing staff. They include wages and salaries, employers’ social security contributions and employment taxes. They do not include vocational training costs or expenditure on recruitment.

NACE: from the French Nomenclature statistique des activités économiques dans la Communauté européenne (the Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community). Various versions have been developed since 1970.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Regulation (EC) No 450/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 February 2003 concerning the labour cost index (OJ L 69, 13.3.2003, pp. 1–5)

Successive amendments to Regulation (EC) No 450/2003 have been incorporated in the original text. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.