TALLINN - Gross monthly salaries in Estonia in the third quarter averaged 10,899 kroons (696 euros), up 20.2 percent, the Statistical Office announced. Average hourly pay was 66.7 kroons for the quarter, up 22.7 percent. This year average gross monthly and hourly wages have risen roughly 20 percent year-on-year each quarter, the office said.
Monthly wages rose most in agriculture and hunting (28.6 percent) and the least in real estate, renting and business activities (7.2 percent).
The highest average gross monthly wage in the third quarter was in financial intermediation (banking) at 18,375 kroons. Construction and public administration were next, with an average 13,355 and 13,154 kroons, respectively.
Education was at the bottom of the list with an average 6,808 kroons.
Employers' average monthly labor costs were 14,654 kroons per employee, while average hourly labor costs were 104.4 kroons in the third quarter.
Compared to the same quarter a year ago, average monthly labor costs per employee were up by 20.3 percent and hourly labor costs by 21.7 percent.
In Lithuania, average monthly gross wages rose 17.9 percent in the third quarter year-on-year to reach 1,949 litas (565.1 euros), the Statistics Department reported on Nov. 27.
The average net salary grew by 17.4 percent year-on-year to 1,449 litas in the period, the department said.
Real wages overall jumped 10.9 percent from a year earlier. In the public sector, real wages increased 5.9 percent, while in the private sector the growth rate was 14.2 percent.
The department attributed the rise in wages to "calendar effects" such as a hike in minimum monthly and hourly wages that went into effect July 1, as well as a rise in wages in the health care sector beginning May 1.
