Salary

The average net salary in Slovenia is already EUR 1 133, an increase of 3.7 percent compared to last year, the National Statistical Office of the country announced.

Salaries in the private sector increased by 3.9%.

There is even bigger growth in the public sector, where in 2019 the salaries were 5.4% higher than in 2018.

The increase in hirings of private sector salary workers has started to slow, generating fears of a reversal of the rise in employment.

According to the preliminary data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI), the number of employees under labour contract at the end of December 2019 decreased by 23.7 thousand or by 1.0% as compared to the end of September 2019, reaching 2.29 million.

The net nominal average salary was 3,340 lei in December 2019, up from the previous month by 161 lei (+5.1pct), and the highest values were recorded in activities of services in information technology (including IT services, namely 7,689 lei, according to the data published on Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

Salary workers who also have a second job for which they are paid via an invoice book ("blokaki") will need to have a salary of at least 800 euros per month to avoid having to pay two sets of social security contributions.

"An increase in salaries does not mean investing in human capital," said economics professor Abdulmenaf Bexheti of the South Eastern Europe University in the western town of Tetovo.

"If we want to invest in human capital then we need to invest extensively and consistently in the education sector, from preschool to higher education."

The Greek labor market has recorded increases in the number of enterprises and salary workers this year, but also a reduction in the average salary, while a considerable portion of workers continue to earn very low wages, according to the statistics of the Ergani database.

Katica Janeva, currently under house arrest awaiting trial on charges of receiving bribes, received more than 150,000 euros in bonuses and expenses on top of her still-secret official salary, according to data dug up by BIRN from a database of budget expenditures between 2010 and 2017.

In order for a four-member family to live normally, it needs BGN 2,472. Thus, an average person per household needs BGN 618.15. This is shown by the Consumer Price and Cost of Living data in Bulgaria of CITUB's Trade Union and Social Research Institute.

Since the beginning of the year, this total support has increased by BGN 63.

According to the preliminary data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI), at the end of September 2019 the number of employees under labour contract decreased by 39.1thousand, or 1.7%, compared to the end of June 2019, reaching 2.31million, the NSI said in a press release.