In the first quarter of this year hourly labour costs in Slovakia went by up by 3.3 percent year-on-year while in the European Union the increase was a third of this figure, according to the European Union's statistical office Eurostat.
In Slovakia the biggest contribution to the hike in labour costs was caused by wages and salaries going up by 3.5 percent while other elements such as mandatory contributions to pension funds and health insurance grew by 2.8 percent .The latter decreased in the European area and EU-wide. Within the EU Member States, for which data is available, the hourly labour costs in the first quarter increased the most in Latvia (7%), Estonia (6.8%), Romania (5.3%) and Poland (4, 2%). A reduction in hourly labour costs was registered in Cyprus (-6.9%), Croatia (-1.7%), Ireland (-0.2%) and Italy (-0.1%).
