Data show great differences among average salaries in different sectors.
The average net salary per employee in businesses in Croatia paid for December last year amounted to 5,838 kuna, which was higher by 3.4 percent nominally and 3.2 percent in real terms than in December 2015, announced the Central Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday, reports Jutarnji List on March 1, 2017.
The final data confirmed the provisional data announced some ten days ago.
Compared to November, the average net salary paid for December last year was higher by 0.6 percent nominally and 0.8 percent in real terms. According to data, the median net salary for November amounted to 4,921 kuna, which means that half of employees received less and half more than that amount.
The highest average monthly net salary per employee in December was paid in air transport sector, in the amount of 10,649 kuna, while the lowest wages were recorded for employees in the clothing manufacturing sector (3,411 kuna).
The average net salary for the whole of last year amounted to 5,685 kuna, which was 1.6 percent nominally and 2.7 percent in real terms higher than in 2015.
The average monthly gross salary for December was 7,831 kuna, and was 1.5 percent higher in real terms than in November. For the whole of 2016, the average monthly gross salary per employee in businesses amounted to 7,752 kuna and was 3 percent higher in real terms than in 2015.
The Croatian Chamber of Economy pointed out two important facts regarding the latest statistics. The first is that, for the first time since March 2015, there was a growth of consumer prices on an annual basis, which means that for the first time in this period there was a lower growth of real wages than of nominal wages. The second point is that December was the first month in the whole year that net salaries had stronger annual growth than gross wages.
“That was the effect of changes in income tax system, which was implemented starting from 1 January, so salaries paid for December were burdened will smaller taxes, which resulted in an increase in net earnings. Given that the calculation and payment of salaries for December is done in January, the tax changes had an impact on salaries for December. Therefore, in the coming year, we can expect further stronger growth of net incomes in relation to gross wages”, explained the Croatian Chamber of Economy, adding that the growth of wages in the last year gave its contribution to an increase in household disposable income, and thus to the growth of private consumption, which has contributed to the acceleration of economic growth.
