In June 2016, regular wages of employees in the private sector increased by 0.4% while corresponding wages in the public sector increased by 4.6%, whereof regular wages increased by 3.9% in municipalities and 5.2% in the central government. Wage increases in the public sector are due to provisions in collective agreements.
Wage increase by occupation groups and economic activities
Yearly increases of regular wages in the private sector in June 2016 ranged from 9.6% for managers to 15.6% for craft workers. In the same period, regular wages of service and shop workers increased by 10.1%, clerks by 11.3%, general workers by 11.7% and professionals by 11.9%.
Yearly increases of regular wages by economic activities ranged from 9.4% in Wholesale and retail trade to 16.8% in Energy and water supply.
Further on the monthly breakdown of the wage index
In order to meet users’ need for increased periodicity of the breakdown of the wage index, Statistics Iceland presents a monthly time series on the wage index for different sub-groups in the Icelandic labour market. The time series of indices replaces the previous series on quarterly wage index and will be updated approximately 90 days after the end of each reference month. The wage index, without any breakdown, will continue to be published roughly 20 days after each reference month.
The series are calculated with reviewed weights and based on the classification of economic activities ÍSAT08 replacing ÍSAT95, i.e. NACE08 rev.2 instead of a previous version. The series include data with better coverage as regards to economic activities as well as better data quality in general.
By calculating wage changes on monthly basis instead of quarterly it is inevitable to have more variation in the results. This is due to several factors. As an example certain occupational groups such as general workers and service workers receive varying bonuses as part of the regular remuneration. In general, the uncertainty in measures also increases with more breakdowns of results.
The wage index is a price index based on data from the Icelandic survey on wages earnings and labour cost. The purpose of the index is to reflect changes in wages paid for fixed working hours. The index is based on earnings for contractual working hours and includes all wages paid for day time and fixed overtime hours, including additional payments and bonuses. Irregular payments and employers' social contributions and taxes are excluded.