Average monthly gross wages per employee will increase by 2.3% in real terms in 2023

Average monthly gross wages per employee (per job) increased by 6.6% in nominal terms and 2.3% in real terms in 2023 compared to 2022, to 1,505 euros, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported.

According to INE, last year regular monthly gross remuneration, excluding salary components such as holiday and Christmas bonuses, meaning it is less seasonal, amounted to €1,216, registering a 6.6% increase in nominal and real (with taking into account inflation). ) 2.2%.

The monthly basic gross salary amounted to 1,143 euros and registered a nominal increase of 6.8% and a real increase of 2.4%.

In 2022, total remuneration increased by 3.7% in nominal terms and decreased by 4.0% in real terms, while the regular monthly component of gross remuneration increased by 3.1% in nominal terms and decreased by 4.4% in real terms, as well as gross monthly base remuneration. an increase of 3.0% and a decrease of 4.5% in nominal and real terms, respectively.

In 2023, the consumer price index (CPI) increased by 4.3% (in 2022 it increased by 7.8%).

Last year, total remuneration ranged from €3,315 in the activities “electricity, gas, steam, hot and cold water and cold air” to €916 in the activities “agriculture, livestock, hunting, forestry and fishing”.

As for 2022, INE highlights that the largest relative growth occurred in “administrative activities and support services” and the smallest in “agriculture, livestock, hunting, forestry and fishing.”

In real terms, total remuneration increased for almost all activities, with the exception of a decrease of 0.4% in “agriculture, livestock farming, hunting, forestry and fishing” and 0.2% in “financial and insurance activities.”

Depending on company size, total remuneration ranged from €1,011 for companies with one to four employees and €1,804 for companies with 250 to 499 employees.

These company size categories also saw the largest (7.4%) and smallest (5.7%) year-over-year growth, respectively (companies with 100 to 249 employees also saw year-over-year growth of 5.7%). Real total compensation increased across all company size groups.

Institutional sector analysis shows that in 2023, total remuneration of civil servants (PAs) in real terms increased by 1.7% between 2022 and 2023 (it fell by 5.3% between 2021 and 2022).

In the private sector, real annual growth in 2023 was 2.9% (down 3.1% in 2022).

Considering only the fourth quarter of 2023, average monthly gross wages per employee increased by 5.7% in nominal terms and by 4.0% in real terms, to €1,670.

The regular portion and the basic portion of this remuneration increased by 6.0% and 6.3% in nominal terms and by 4.2% and 4.5% in real terms, amounting to €1,220 and €1,148 respectively.

INE notes that relative to the third quarter of 2023, there has been a slowdown in prices (from 3.5% to 1.7%) and an acceleration in real wages (for example, from 2.7% to 4.0% in the case of general remuneration).

These results cover 4.7 million jobs, corresponding to social security beneficiaries and Caixa Geral de Aposentações subscribers, an increase of 3.5% compared to the same period in 2022.

Compared to December 2022, average monthly gross remuneration increased across all dimensions of the analysis (economic activity, company size, institutional sector, technology intensity and knowledge intensity).

INE highlights that the greatest growth was recorded in the “extractive industries” (10.0%), in companies with one to four employees (6.5%), in the private sector (6.3%) and in “service” companies. (9.5%).