Labour cost by worker and year. By components

The objective of the Annual Labour Cost Survey (ALCS) is to find out the annual cost per worker of the work factor and its main components: salary expectations, obligatory social security contributions, voluntary contributions, direct social contributions, compensations, professional training costs, transport cost, social costs and other costs derived from the generation of employment. The Annual Labour Cost Survey is produced on the basis of a questionnaire annexed to the Quarterly Labour Cost Survey (QLCS) in the third quarter of the year. The reference period for the results of the QLCS is the natural quarter and the reference period for the requested information is the natural month. That is why a unit is required that covers labour costs with an expiry period of more than one month. These entries include voluntary contributions, direct social payments and apprenticeship costs, which are included in the unit that is used to produce the Annual Labour Cost Survey.

The ALCS statistics unit is equal to the QLCS, the account of contributions to Social Security, which consists of a set of workers at one or more centres, that belong to the same business in the same province and that have homogeneous characteristics in terms of social security contributions.

From 2008, the data correspond to the new Catalan Classification of Economic Activities 2009 (CCAE-09).

The items used are:

Worker

Any person linked to the contributions account by any kind of contract.

Labour cost

The total cost borne by the employer for the use of the labour factor.

Net labour cost

Gross labour cost minus subventions. Gross labour cost is formed by: wage cost, compulsory contributions to social security, voluntary contributions, direct social remuneration and other components of the cost.

Wage cost

Includes all remunerations, in cash but also in kind, given to workers in return for their professional services as employees, whether paid for work done or for rest periods computed as time worked. Therefore, the wage cost includes the base salary, salary components, payment of extraordinary hours, extraordinary payments and overdue payments. All these components are gathered in gross terms, i.e. before applying retentions or payments to social security by the employee.

Compulsory social security contributions

The legally established contributions that the employer makes to the social security system on behalf of its workers to cover the benefits that the system establishes and which arise in cases of illness, maternity, accidents at work, disability, retirement, unemployment, vocational training, wage guarantees and any other contingency covered by social security.

Voluntary contributions

The contributions established through negotiation in collective bargaining agreements and that are made in order to improve the payments covered by the social security system or to cover for remunerations considered by the system. Of particular note are pensions and savings plans, medical insurance, cover for maternity and accidents, and other insurance plans.

Direct social payments

Remunerations that the employer pays directly to workers, or their families, to support them in certain circumstances. This payment is derived from temporal disability (TD), unemployment, retirement, death and survival, disability or invalidity, family care and medical care.

Other cost components

Compensation for dismissal, apprenticeship costs, transport costs, social costs (refectories, nursery school, sports and cultural activities, etc.), and other costs such as compensatory payments (work clothes, small tools, etc.), fees for terminating contracts, the selection of human resources, etc.

Allowances and travel expenses are not included in the labour cost because they are an inherent requirement of the production process and are accounted for as intermediate consumption.

Subventions

Set of subsidies for contributions to social security, contractual subsidies, apprenticeship subsidies and tax deductions.