Labour cost. Hours by worker and month

The short-term information about labour costs comes from the Quarterly Labour Cost Survey(QLCS), a continuous quarterly operation carried out by the INE in order to provide indicators and find out about change in the average labour cost per worker and month, by effective hours, and time worked and not worked.

Until 2007 the study population for the QLCS was made up of all contribution accounts in the Social Security general system and special system for coal mining, regardless of their size. The QLCS gathers information about workers who have been registered for at least one day during the reference month and examines the contribution accounts whose activity is in the three big economic sectors, namely industry, construction and services, and specifically in those in sections C to K and M to O in the Catalan Classification of Economic Activities (CCEA-93). A total of 54 divisions in the CCEA-93 are analysed and Agriculture (A), fishing (B), public administration, defence and compulsory social security (L), households employing domestic personnel (P) and extraterritorial organisations (Q) are all excluded from the operation.

Since 2008 the study population for the QLCS has been adapted to the new CCAE-2009 and is made up of all contribution accounts in the Social Security general system, the special system for coal mining and the special system for sea-based workers whose economic activity is sea transport (code 50 in the new CCAE-2009) regardless of their size. The QLCS gathers information about workers who have been registered for at least one day during the reference month and examines the contribution accounts whose activity is in the three big economic sectors, namely industry, construction and services, and specifically in those in sections B to S in the Catalan Classification of Economic Activities (CCEA-2009). A total of 82 divisions in the CCEA-2009 are analysed and Agriculture (A), households employing domestic personnel (T) and extraterritorial organisations (U) are all excluded from the operation.

Until the fourth quarter of 2003 the Quarterly Labour Cost Survey was called the Labour Cost Index (LCI). In the same way the LCI had previously replaced the Salary Survey (SS), which was carried out until 2000, to expand its goals.

The items used are:

Worker

Any person linked to the contributions account by any kind of contract.

For the purposes of calculating the labour cost per worker, in the case of those workers who have been registered in the contributions account for less than one month the proportional part of the time during which they have been registered is calculated.

Labour cost

The total cost borne by the employer for the use of the labour factor. It is broken down into wage cost and other costs.

Wage cost

Includes all remuneration in cash and in kind paid to workers for the professional provision of their labour services for a third party, including both compensation for time actually worked and rest periods calculated as working time. Wage cost therefore includes the base salary, bonuses, overtime, extra month payments and deferred payments. All of these components are included in gross terms, in other words before applying withholding or social security contributions by the worker.

Other costs

They include non-wage remuneration and compulsory social security contributions:

Non-wage remuneration means payments received by the worker not for their labour activity, but rather in compensation for expenses generated by doing their work or to cover needs or situations of inactivity not attributable to the worker. It includes:

• direct social benefits (payments for temporary disability (TD), unemployment, retirement, death and survival, total or partial permanent disability, etc.),
• compensation payments and other non-wage remuneration (wear and tear of utensils or tools, purchase of work clothes, travel expenses and per diems, daily travel allowance and urban transport, compensation for relocation, redundancy compensation, etc.).

Compulsory social security contributions are the legally established contributions which the employer makes to the social security system on behalf of their workers to cover the benefits which the system establishes and which arise in cases of illness, maternity, accident at work, disability, retirement, unemployment, vocational training, wages guarantees and any other contingency covered by the social security.

Agreed hours

These are the hours legally established by verbal agreement, individual contract or collective agreement between the worker and the company.

Effective hours

These are the hours actually worked during normal working periods and as overtime, including hours lost at the workplace which are deemed to be effective hours by virtue of prevailing regulations.

Effective hours = agreed hours + overtime and/or supplementary hours - hours not worked + hours lost at the workplace.

Hours not worked

These are the hours not worked during the workday for whatever reason: vacation or holiday, temporary disability, maternity, adoption, time off in compensation for overtime, time spent on union duties, fulfilment of an essential obligation, taking exams, appointments with a doctor, hours not worked for technical, organisational or production reasons, hours lost at the workplace, labour conflicts, absenteeism, lock-outs, etc.