The disbursement that companies have to make to pay the contributions, salaries and associated expenses of an employee continues to rise in Spain. In the third quarter of this year, the labor cost per hour worked as measured by the National Institute of Statistics increased by 5.2% compared to the same period in 2023, a rate 3.4 points higher than that of the previous quarter, according to the provisional data from the Harmonized Labor Cost Index (ICLA) published today by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
The latter, without correcting the effects of calendar and seasonality (work in the service sector increases in summer). In corrected data, the annual variation was 4.7%. In either case, it means that Labor costs have risen for 13 consecutive quarters in our country.
If we take only the cost of salaries, it grew by 4.9% in annual rate (again, without correcting seasonal and calendar effects), while other costs increased by 5.9%, almost one point above of the total cost. The labor cost, excluding extraordinary payments and delays, grew by 5% year-on-year between July and September.
By activities, in turn, those that presented the highest annual rates were the professional, scientific and technical (6.5%), real estate (6.0%) and hospitality (6.0%). On the other hand, the smallest increases occurred in supply of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning (2.0%), construction (2.9%) and administrative activities and auxiliary services (3.5%).
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