Salaries and wages

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

Earnings Statistics Group

Cmilja Ivković

Head of Unit of Earnings statistics

5 Milana Rakića, Belgrade

cmilja.ivkovic@stat.gov.rs

+381 11 2412 350

The survey on earnings is based on data from the Tax Administration records, from the Individual tax return on accrued taxes and contributions (PPP-PD form).

Average earnings are calculated on the basis of the total amount of accrued salaries and wages for the reporting month and the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees.

The calculation of average salaries and wages includes employees with indefinite or fixed-term employment contract, as well as employees in temporary or occasional employment. Incomes of persons who work on the basis of service contract or author contract are not considered as salaries and wages.

• Classification of Activities (2010), which was adopted by the Government, based on the Law on Classification of Activities (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 104/09), on the basis of regulation as of 29 July 2009 (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 54/10). This classification is comparable with the classification of activities of the European Union (NACE Rev. 2);
• List of municipalities drawn in line with the Regulation on the Nomenclature of Statistical Territorial Units (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 109/09 and 46/10);
• Catalogue of the type of income that is prescribed by the Rulebook on tax return (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 74/13, 118/13, 66/14, 71/14 – correction, 14/16, 21/17, 20/18).

All activity sections, from section A – Agriculture, forestry and fishing to section S – Other service activities are covered.

Earnings (salaries and wages), in the survey on wages and salaries (in accordance with the Labour Law and the Law on Personal Income Tax), include all payments to employees to which the corresponding taxes and social security contributions are paid (gross earnings).

Net earnings are earnings without any related taxes and contributions.

In accordance with Article 105 of the Labour Law, earnings of employees with indefinite or fixed-term employment contract include all remuneration for the work done and the time spent at work, earnings based on the employee’s contribution to the business success of the employer (awards, bonuses) and other earnings based on employment, in accordance with the general act and the employment contract.

In accordance with Article 13 of the Law on Personal Income Tax, earnings also include remuneration of employees in temporary or occasional employment (based on contract for performing temporary or occasional jobs – Article 197 of the Labour Law), as well as personal earnings of entrepreneurs.

Earnings of employees include:

• payments for work with full, shorter than full or longer than full-time working hours (overtime),
• allowances for on-call, night and shift work, work on Sundays and public holidays,
• food allowances during work and holiday allowance,
• allowances for hours not worked (annual vacation, paid leave, public holidays, sick leave up to 30 days, absence due to vocational training, a standstill in work not caused by workers’ guilt, compensation because employee is temporarily prevented from working, and compensation is paid by the employer from the first to the last day),
• a gift for children for New Year above the non-taxable amount.

Earnings of employees do not include:

• compensations for sick leave longer than 30 days,
• payments under the service contract or author contract,
• compensation of travel costs to and from work,
• compensation of travel expenses on business trip in the country or abroad,
• daily allowances for business trip in the country or abroad,
• accommodation and food expenses, for work and stay in the field, if the employer has not provided accommodation and food for the employee,
• retirement or discharge severance pay,
• one-time fees in accordance with the social program,
• compensations for costs of funeral services,
• compensations for occupational injuries or professional diseases,
• jubilee awards,
• solidarity aids,
• participation of the employee in profit,
• compensations of using official cars for official purposes,
• a gift for children up to 15 years of age for Christmas and New Year, to a non-taxable amount,
• premium for voluntary supplementary pension insurance,
• collective insurance premiums against accidents and collective insurance in case of serious illness and surgical interventions,
• reimbursement of expenses for the use of means of work and other labour costs, as well as other remunerations for which the corresponding taxes and contributions are not paid.

When calculating average earnings, all data from tax return forms that are submitted within 45 days after the expiration of the month to which the average earnings relate are included.

Average salaries and wages are calculated by dividing the total mass of accrued salaries and wages by the total number of employees expressed as the full-time equivalent (FTE).

Coefficient from 0 to 1.5 is assigned to each employee depending on the number of hours spent at work. Thus, for example, an employee who worked 80 hours in the month in which the full number of working hours is 160 is calculated as 1/2 of the employee (i.e. the coefficient for the employee is 0.5). In this way, employees, who work with several employers and/or in various activities and types of ownership, are covered by all employers, and their number is not multiplied, while the earnings are attributed to the activity and the type of ownership in which they are actually realized.

According to the modality of employment, employed persons are employees with indefinite or fixed-term employment contract and employees in temporary or occasional employment.

• The concept “Salaries and wages of employees with indefinite or fixed-term employment contract” includes persons who have a formal contract of employment with an employer for a fixed or indefinite period of time, regardless whether working full-time or part-time.
• The concept “Salaries and wages of employees in temporary or occasional employment” includes persons having a formal contract for performing temporary or occasional jobs.

Salaries and wages by modality of employment are based on the income type.

Public sector is the part of national economy covering general government, as well as non-financial enterprises under government supervision (public enterprises) who are primarily engaged in commercial activities (Law on Budgetary System, “Official Gazette of RS”, No. 54/2009, 73/2010, 101/2010, 101/2011, 93/2012, 62/2013, 63/2013, 108/2013, 142/2014, 68/2015 and 103/2015). Therefore, the public sector covers the beneficiaries of budgetary funds in education, culture, health, social work activities, government administration as well as public enterprises which are founded by the State or local self-government units which perform activity of general interest (Law on public enterprises and performing activities of general interest, “Official Gazette of RS”, No. 119/2012, 116/2013 and 44/2014).

The public sector is broken down into the following subsets:

• Public state enterprises are enterprises which are founded by the Republic of Serbia or autonomous province and which perform activities of general interest, such as production, transmission and supply of electricity; coal production and processing; researches, production, processing, transport and supply of oil and natural and liquefied gas; sale of oil and oil derivatives; railway, postal and air transport; telecommunications; publishing of the official gazette of the Republic of Serbia; publishing of schoolbooks; management of nuclear facilities, use, management, protection and improvement of assets of general interest (water, roads, mineral raw materials, forests, navigable rivers, lakes, banks, spas, wildlife, protected areas); production, sale and transport of arms and military equipment, waste management.
• Public local enterprises are enterprises which are founded by the units of local self-government authorities and which perform public utilities’ activities or activities of interest for functioning of local authorities’ bodies.
• Administration ‒ government level implies government bodies, judicial bodies and institutions engaged in government-related activities.
• Administration ‒ autonomous province level implies bodies of the autonomous province, judicial bodies and institutions performing the activities of general interest for the autonomous province.
• Administration ‒ local authorities’ level implies local authorities’ level, local communities and institutions performing the activities of general interest for local authorities.
• Health and social work implies beneficiaries of budgetary funds, i.e. government institutions engaged in health and social security activities, sale of pharmaceutical products in pharmacies, sale of medical and orthopaedic aids in specialised stores as well as students’ and pupils’ dormitories.
• Education and culture implies beneficiaries of budgetary funds, i.e. government institutions engaged in education; scientific research & development; publishing activity; broadcasting activities; creative, art and entertainment activities; sports facilities activities as well as activities related to libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities.

The status of a business entity determines whether a business entity is a legal entity or not.

The statistical unit is any accrued type of income that has the character of earnings and which is reported by a legal entity or physical person through the PPP-PD form, regardless whether that income relates to employees with indefinite or fixed-term employment contract or employees in temporary or occasional employment.

All business entities from the Statistical Business Register (SBR) that submitted an electronically filled-in tax return form (PPP-PD form) with accrued salaries and wages to the Tax Administration are included in the survey.

In order to obtain data on average salaries and wages, only accrued types of income that have the character of earnings are taken into account, for which, in addition to taxes, contributions on earnings are also accrued. If more than one type of income is calculated for one person, of one or more payers, each type of income is considered separately in order to be classified according to the characteristics of the recipient, and according to the characteristics of the payers.

Other payments that have the character of earnings (the difference in earnings of a person in public office, contributions to earnings without accrued earnings, a gift to children for New Year and Christmas – above a non-taxable amount) are included in the earnings of the recipient only in cases when the basic salary is accrued.

Republic of Serbia.

Starting from 1999 the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia has not at disposal and may not provide available certain data relative to AP Kosovo and Metohija and therefore these data are not included in the coverage for the Republic of Serbia (total).

From January 2018, the data source for calculating average salaries and wages is the Tax Administration data collected through an electronic tax return form (PPP-PD).

Until January 2018, data on average salaries and wages were provided on the basis of the Monthly survey on employees and their salaries and wages (RAD-1), which was implemented since 1963.

See section 15.2.

Not applicable.

RSD

The calculation of average salaries and wages for the month includes the data on accrued salaries and wages from tax returns that are submitted within 45 days after the end of the month to which they relate.

Not applicable.

Data confidentiality is stipulated by:

- Official Statistics Law (Official Gazette of RS, number 104/2009), Articles 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49.

(https://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/o-nama/dokumenti)

- Rulebook on statistical data protection in the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

(https://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/o-nama/dokumenti ) 

- Guidelines on measures of data and information protection in the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

(https://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/o-nama/dokumenti )

Confidential data are treated according to the confidentiality related policy rules. See Official statistics law.

Calendar of releases is available at SORS website on the 1st day of December every year for the forthcoming year (http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/calendar).

Calendar of releases is available at SORS website:

http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/calendar

Monthly data are published 55 days after the end of the month to which they relate.

In April, data on average wages by gender and distribution of earnings are published, for September of the previous year

Not applicable.

Statistical release ZR10 – Average salaries and wages per employee, monthly

Database

Micro-data are not disseminated.

• Monthly statistical bulletin
• Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Serbia
• Statistical Pocketbook
• Municipalities and regions in the Republic of Serbia

Methodological explanations are available on the SBS website, link:

http://www.stat.gov.rs/istrazivanja/methodology-and-documents/?a=05&s=0

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Data on accrued salaries and wages are based on reliable data from appropriate administrative sources and surveys. The degree of accuracy is high. Before publishing the results, extensive data quality control is performed.

A comparative analysis of data on average salaries and wages obtained through the Monthly statistical survey RAD-1 and the data from the Tax Administration records for 2016 and 2017 showed high compliance of data. This confirms quality of data obtained by the RAD-1 survey, as well as quality of data from the Tax Administration records (PPP-PD form), which is used as a source of data on average salaries and wages starting from 2018.

The use of administrative sources for obtaining data on average salaries and wages is in line with international recommendations, standards and practices.

In addition to the data published in the regular publications of SORS, special processing is done at the users’ request.

On biennial basis (once in two years), by the means of web interview, implemented is the User Satisfaction Survey. The survey results are available at SORS website: http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/o-nama/sistem-upravljanja-kvalitetom.

Covered are all business entities that have submitted an electronically filled-in PPP-PD tax return form with accrued salaries and wages to the Tax Administration, and which are in SBR (legal entities and state bodies, representative offices or branch offices of foreign legal entities, entrepreneurs).

The salaries and wages of the following categories of recipients are covered:

• employees with indefinite or fixed-term employment contract and employees in temporary or occasional employment who work with the employer;
• founders and members employed in their own company;
• entrepreneurs.

The survey is based on data from administrative sources, which ensures high level of coverage and data quality.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The data are published 55 days after the end of the month to which they relate.

All data are published according to the Release calendar.

The same concept of obtaining and calculating average salaries and wages is applied in the entire national territory.

Data for smaller territorial domains than total of the Republic of Serbia are not comparable with the data before 2018. From 2018, average earnings by municipalities refer to the municipality of residence, while data from the RAD-1 survey referred to the municipality of work of the employee.

In the time series from 1963 to 2018, there are four breaks: 1997, 2001, 2009 and 2018.

• In 1997, the method of calculating average earnings was changed by dividing the total amount of paid earnings with the number of employees according to the personnel records.
• In 2001, the Labour Law changed the definition of earnings.
• Since 2009, when calculating average earnings, the data referring to salaries and wages of the entrepreneurs’ employees are also taken into account. These data were taken from the Tax Administration records.
• From 2018, the data on average earnings are calculated on the basis of administrative sources (data from the Tax Administration records).

So as to provide data comparability while calculating the indices, the data for the year preceding the year of break in series were calculated from the same source and in the same manner as the data for the year in which the time series break occurred.

Not available.

See section 11.2.

Data are taken from administrative sources (Tax Administration records), thus reducing the survey costs to a minimum. Also, the reporting units are no longer obligated to fill in and submit data every month.

The SORS general revision policy constitutes the global frame ensuring that each statistical domain shall define its own revision policy in compliance with its specific nature. 

Previously published data on salaries and wages cannot be changed due to the application of these data in many laws and regulations.

• Ministry of Finance - Tax Administration, Individual tax return on accrued taxes and contributions (PPP-PD form)
• SBR
• Annual survey on earnings of employees RAD-1 / G (September 2020)

Monthly

Data from Tax Administration. Tax Administration’s data are transmitted electronically, through web service, i.e. FTP service (File Transfer Protocol), via a secured network of the Administration of General Affairs of government bodies of the Republic of Serbia. Data are taken on the 15th day of the month.

Data from SBR. Data on economic activity, type of ownership and status of a business entity are taken from the SBR database.

Use of data from RAD-1/G survey. For organisational units that perform economic activity other than registered, average earnings are calculated on the basis of the structure of earnings and the number of employees to whom earnings relate, which are taken from the Annual Survey on earnings of employees RAD-1 / G (September 2020).

In order to obtain data of a good quality, data control is carried out in several phases:

• Contingent control is conducted (comparison of number of records, mass of accrued salaries and wages and number of recipients for current and previous month is performed);
• Comparison and analysis of data on the number of business entities and employees from the registers of CRCSI, SBR and TA are performed;
• The contingent of records that meets the established criteria enters the processing of data on average salaries and wages;
• In the contingent of records which is allocated for the processing of data on average salaries and wages, control and analysis of relevant data is carried out in order to identify potential errors and check the data quality;
• Extreme values (outliers) are detected and excluded.

Data checks are performed by automated procedures and by experts’ data analysis. Data is compared with data from the previous period.

About 3% of records (individual calculation of the tax on deduction) are excluded from the contingent allocated to the processing of data on average salaries and wages. These records do not fully meet the requirements necessary to be taken into account when calculating average earnings (tax return records that do not contain all the necessary elements of earnings: tax, contribution, net earnings as well as outliers).

Not applicable.

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