2024-03-31 17:09:00
Greece ranks among the cheapest labor in Europe. Practically, this means that we are in the last positions of the EU according to the latest Eurostat survey, regarding labor costs.
Based on hourly labor costs, Greece ranks in the zone of European countries with prices between 15 and 20 euros. More specifically, the hourly labor cost is 15.7 euros and ranks 23rd among EU countries, far below the European average of 24 euros. Thus, based on the data of 2023, the country is included in the second “cheapest” zone of the European ranking.
In the first and most “expensive” zone of countries with hourly labor costs above 45 euros are Luxembourg (53.9 euros), Norway (51.9 euros), and Belgium (47.1 euros).
In the lower zone of countries with costs below 15 euros, there are Bulgaria (9.3 euros), Romania (11 euros), Hungary (12.8 euros), Croatia (14.4 euros) and Poland (14, 5 euro).
According to Eurostat, the two main components of labor costs are wages and non-wage costs (eg employer social contributions). The share of non-wage costs in total labor costs for the economy as a whole was 24.7% in the EU and 25.5% in the euro area.
The lowest shares of non-wage costs were recorded in Malta (1.4%), Romania (5.0%) and Lithuania (5.4%) and the highest in Sweden (32.2%) and France (31, 9%).
Finally, it is noted that the average hourly labor cost in the economy was calculated, for 2023, at 31.8 euros in the EU and 35.6 euros in the eurozone countries, compared to 30.2 euros and 34.0 euros, respectively, in 2022.
Hourly labor costs to rise by 5.3% in the EU between 2022 and 2023
In 2023 compared to 2022, hourly labor costs at the level of the total economy increased by 5.3% in the EU and by 4.8% in the euro area.
Within the euro area, hourly labor costs increased in all countries. The biggest increases were recorded in Croatia (+14.2%), Lithuania (+12.4%) and Estonia (+11.7%).