The average wage growth of almost 12 percent at the end of 2023 was driven by a higher minimum wage, rising wages of civil servants, and companies’ desire to retain employees, says Kristina Zitikyte, an advisor from the Statistics, Analysis and Forecasting Department at the social insurance fund SoDra.
“This was caused by the 15 percent increase in the minimum monthly wage, as well as the increase in the basic pay rate for civil servants by almost 3 percent and other market reasons when we saw that companies do not want to lose employees because of the lower hiring number and the lower number of layoffs, that was also a contributing factor,” she told a press conference on Thursday.
In October-December, Lithuanians earned an average pre-tax wax salary of 2,060 euros, 11.7 percent more than a year earlier. Their average after-tax salary rose by 10.6 percent, or 122 euros, to 1,275 euros.
The construction sector saw the faster growth rate as the average pre-tax salary went up by 15.9 percent to 1,480 euros.
However, labor income growth in high value-added activities was slower than the national average as wages increased by 7.9 percent to 3,143 euros before tax at information and communication companies, and rose by 9 percent to 2,932 euros at finance and insurance companies.
In late 2023, the number of insured persons was 12,500 higher than a year earlier. Last year, 26,200 more people were hired than fired (38,000 in 2022).
Source: BNS
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