Salaries not yet recovered to pre-2012 levels

Annual earnings of Cyprus employees dropped from EUR 24,530 in 2010 to EUR 23,791 in 2018, an indication that pay has not recovered to pre-2012 levels when the banking collapse and financial crisis took its toll on salaries, mainly in the private sector.

The Structure of Earnings Survey for 2018 compiled by the statistical service CyStat, said that the total monthly earnings of full-time employees averaged EUR 1,837 (EUR 1,977 for men and EUR 1,676 for women).

Although this was an increase of 5.1% from 2014 wages, it was still short of the monthly EUR 1,890 earned in 2010.

However, data indicates that wages have improved in the last two years.

According to provisional figures for 2020, average gross monthly earnings during the second quarter of the year increased by 1.7% to EUR 1,925 from EUR 1,893 in the second quarter of 2019.

The CyStat annual data for 2018 showed that the mean total annual earnings for fulltime employees was an average EUR 23,791 (EUR 25,618 for men and EUR 21,706 for women), which is still lower than the 2010 annual EUR 24,530.

“The occupational category with the highest monthly and annual earnings for full-time employees, was category “Managers”, with a monthly average of EUR 5,697 and an annual average of EUR 76,919,” the CyStat report said.

The categories with the lowest mean monthly and annual earnings for full-time employees were: a) “Elementary occupations”, with an average of EUR 1,146 and EUR 14,682 respectively; and b) “Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers”, with an average of EUR 1,177 and EUR 14,713 respectively.

However, Cystat said this was for a very small sample of e mployees in these categories.

According to CyStat, the highest monthly and annual earnings for full-time employees in 2018 was in “Mining and Quarrying” (a section with a small number of employees), with mean monthly earnings EUR 3,225 and mean annual earnings EUR 45,247. “Financial and Insurance Activities” follows, with EUR 3,017 and EUR 39,886 respectively.

The lowest mean monthly and annual earnings for full-time employees were in “Accommodation and Food Service Activities” (monthly EUR 1,229 and annual EUR 15,940), followed by “Other Service Activities” (monthly EUR 1,285 and a yearly

EUR 16,096).

In 2018, the mean hourly rate was EUR 10.78 for full-time employees and EUR 8.08 for part-timers.

Full-time male employees received EUR 11.33 while women earned EUR 10.15, on average. Part-time male employees received EUR 7.99 and females EUR 8.16.

This was an increase of 3.1% from the hourly earnings of full-time employees in 2014 and 14.5% for part-timers.

“The increase in the hourly earnings of part-time employees is mainly attributed to the large increase in the number of employees in the labour market overall and specifically in occupational categories such as, “Professionals” and “Technicians and associate professionals”, the Cystat report concluded.