The average hourly labour cost in Greece in 2017 was 14,5 euros, according to figures released by Eurostat on Monday. This was less than the average for the European Union (26.8 euros) and the euro area (30.3 euros) but significantly higher than the average rate in several EU member-states was in Bulgaria (4.9 euros), Romania (6.3 euros) and Lithuania (8.0 euros).
The highest hourly labour cost, by contrast was in Denmark (42.5 euros), Belgium (39.6 euros) and Luxembourg (37.6 euros).
According to Eurostat, the data came from businesses with at least 10 employees and did not include those working in agriculture or in the public sector.
The hourly labour cost in Greece has risen in 2017 compared with 2015 (14.1 euros) and 2016 (14.2 euros) but remained lower than in 2008 (16.8 euros). The non-wage cost of labour (mainly employers’ social contributions plus employment taxes) in 2017 was 25.7 pct of total cost, or roughly the same as the Eurozone average (25.9 pct).
The highest hourly labour cost in Greece in 2017 was in industry (15.3 euros), while hourly labour cost was 14.3 euros in the service industries and 10.2 euros in construction.
