Average regular monthly earnings1 were 724 thousand ISK in 2023. For full time employees, regular monthly earnings were 804 thousand ISK and the median 719 thousand ISK. More employees received regular monthly earnings below the amount of average earnings (65%). This is due to the distribution of earnings. The lowest earnings are distributed over a much smaller interval than the higher earnings, therefore the highest earnings have a much stronger effect on the average than the lowest earnings.
Mean total monthly earnings for full-time employees were 935 thousand ISK in 2023 and one fourth received total earnings below 682 thousand ISK. Half of all full-time male employees had total monthly earnings over 893 thousand ISK but about 34% of full-time female employees. Full-time male employees received more paid hours on average than full-time female employees, as the paid hours for men were 179.1 per month on average in 2023 but 172.5 for women. More paid hours on average for males explains partly why males have higher total earnings than females. Additionally, there is a difference in which industries men and women are employed, approximately 17% of employed males work in the public sector while 42% of employed women work in the public sector.2
Lowest earnings among occupations of child-care workers
Wage comparison between occupations3 shows that directors and chief executives had the highest earnings on average, just over 2.3 million ISK per month in 2023. Medical doctors, judges, finance and sales associate professionals, ship and aircraft controllers and technicians, production and operations department managers in business services enterprises, senior government officials and research and developement department managers are some examples of occupations where total monthly earnings were more than 1.7 million ISK on average. Lowest monthly total earnings, on average, were in the occupations of child-care workers, about 562 thousand ISK, and among library, mail and related clerks, 570 thousand ISK.
Distribution of total earnings differ by occupations
In the year 2023, total monthly earnings by occupational group ranged from 668 thousand ISK for general, machine and specialized workers to 1,474 thousand ISK for managers. Distribution of total earnings in occupational groups was different, which can be explained by various occupations within each occupational group, as is the case with managers, which includes both chief executives and department managers.
Distribution of total full-time earnings shows that close to 69% of service workers had wages lower than 750 thousand ISK per month and about 15% recieved total full-time earnings in the range of 500-550 thousand ISK. The distribution of total monthly earnings for clerks was more homogenous compared to other occupations as approximately 63% of full-time clerks received an average of total monthly earnings in the range of 550-800 thousand ISK. A higher distribution in total earnings was visible for specialists, managers and craft workers.
About the statistics
A set of comprehensive data series on earnings for the Icelandic labour market for the years 2014-2023 has now been published. Information contains earnings by occupational group, sectors and economic activities. In addition, information for more than 200 occupations are published.
Previously published results for 2022 have also been revised and re-calculated. Therefore, changes are visible in the previously published figures for 2022. All figures are preliminary. Results are based on the Icelandic Survey on Wages, Earnings and Labour Costs and cover over 95 thousand employees. The survey is a stratified sample survey including legal units with 10 or more employees and data are weighted according to the survey design. The survey covers most of the Icelandic labour market even though certain economic activities are missing. More on the survey and methods can be found in metadata on Statistics Iceland‘s website.
During the year 2019 and 2020, new collective agreements were signed which stipulated, amongst other things, a flat rate wage increase and shortening the working hours. Furthermore, an opportunity to abolished coffee breaks was included. The shorter working hours came into action in the beginning of 2020 in the private sector and 2021 in the public sector. The shortening of the working hours does not affect monthly earnings, but it affects paid hours which are also published. From 2019 paid hours have decreased, both due to the shortening of the working hours and decreased overtime hours.
1 Regular earnings for part-time employees are full-time equivalent.
2 Register based employment by economic sector
3 Occupations for full-time employees which are publised on Statistics Iceland‘s website.