Comparability

Comparability - geographical

Data is submitted every fourth year by all EU countries to Eurostat, which are then used for publishing the Labour Cost Surveys. Consistency in concepts and methods has been created between each national statistical institute in the EU, which implies that figures on labour costs are comparable among countries.

Comparability over time

Due to changes in the compilation method, comparisons with statistics prior to 2014 are not possible. Owing to changes in the compilation method, comparisons with statistics compiled before 2002 is not possible. Owing to changes in the compilation method, comparisons of statistics from 1998-2001 with statistics compiled before 1997 are only possible to a limited extent.

Specific changes: - From 2019-2022: COVID-19 related leave (not including COVID-19 related sick leave) has been implemented into the statistics. Other labour costs have been calculated in relation to hours worked, where leave from work due to lockdown and restrictions has been deducted, and financial compensation for paid leave has been incorporated into Refunds from public funds. For 2020, an extraordinary component has been added to the series in statbank, which displays the extra wage costs due the reduced hours worked. The component is called Wage cost for furlough without the possibility to work from home. The component is included in the total of labour costs, which thus expresses the total labour costs per hour worked excl. furlough. The wage cost components (Earnings per hour worked, including subcomponents), on the other hand, is in coherence with how hours worked is defined in the Structure of earnings statistics, where furlough is considered to be working hours, where the employee has been available for the employer. For 2020, three temporary COVID-19 related grants/subsidies have also been included under AUB. This results in relatively large amounts of Refunds from public funds for trainees. - From 2018-2019: The internship-dependent AUB contribution came into force on 1 January 2018. Companies can receive an internship bonus for their trainees. The first bonuses were paid out in 2019. This entails a higher level of refunds from public funds for trainees in 2019 compared to 2018.. - From 2014 to 2015: Companies and organizations do no longer receive bonuses for having trainees, which has led to a lower level of refunds from public funds in comparison with 2014. - From 2013 to 2014: Modified by sector in 2014: This publication presents the salary structure for the first time in accordance with the new European national accounting manual ESA2010 . The definition of sectors has been changed so that the private sector is now defined as companies and organizations. In addition to the name change, some substantive changes of the division delimitation have been made i.e. DSB is now referred to as a private enterprise and is therefore no longer in the public sector. From 2014 the data now includes contributions and refunds regarding the public flex job scheme and parental fund.
- From 2011 to 2012: Information of contribution to maternity fund and refunds from the maternity fund is collected from ATP, who manage the schemes. - From 2010 to 2011: Information of contribution to Employers' Refunds for Apprentices (AER), the financial contribution, occupational disease insurance (AES) and refunds from AER is collected from ATP, who manage the schemes. - From 2009 to 2010: New classification of occupations. Classification of employees by occupations is conducted on the basis the nomenclature DISCO-08, which is the Danish version of the ILO's official nomenclature for occupations ISCO-08. DISCO-08 is a revised version of the previously used nomenclature DISCO-earnings. Subsequently, DISCO-08 is used for the first time in the structural statistics on earnings. For further details see https://www.dst.dk/disco. There is no homogeneous conversion key between DISCO-earnings and DISCO-08. Consequently, earnings distributed by occupations are not comparable backwards in time. New earnings components. New wage concepts. The structure of earnings survey has changed salary components. Hence new tables containing the new definitions has been made. The tables contains figures for the year 2010 and will be updated yearly. The previously tables has been updated for the last time for the year 2010. - From 2007 to 2008: New classification. Employees are classified according to the Danish Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities 2007, which is based on the common European nomenclature of industries NACE rev.2 - From 2006 to 2007: In 2006, contributions to the maternity leave funds are made compulsory in accordance with Danish legislation. From 2006, contributions to and reimbursements from maternity leave funds are included, both under legal costs and costs subject to agreements. 2007 is the first year for which contributions to and reimbursements from maternity leave funds are exclusively included under legal costs. - From 2004 to 2005: There is an increase in contributions subject to agreements in relation to 2004. This is due to the circumstance that the maternity leave fund maintained by the Danish Employers' Confederation came into force as of 1 July 2005. All affiliated employers of the Danish Employers' Confederation are obliged to pay a contribution of DKK 786 annually to the maternity leave fund for each employee - From 2002 to 2003: There are a number of changes from 2002 to 2003. The most important change is an expansion of the sample by 670 business enterprises, which has resulted in an improvement of the general data quality. Furthermore, some specific legal amendments have given rise to some changes in other labour costs. In 2003, the ATP contribution was combined with the contributions to the Employees' Guarantee Fund (LG), and they are now called financial contributions. The contributions to public funds increased in 2003, due to the circumstance that the new financial contributions are larger than the ATP contributions, as well as the contributions to the LG. Furthermore, the working environment tax was abolished from 2003, and this has, subsequently, caused a decrease in other compulsory costs. - From 2001 to 2002: Information on other labour costs is collected at enterprise level unlike information on earnings, which is collected at the level of individuals. Consequently, the published statistical data on total labour costs have until now been restricted to specific distributions by enterprise. To enhance flexibility for this part of the statistical system, other labour costs for 2002 are distributed by individuals. The reason why it is possible to undertake distributions of data at the level of individuals is that a majority of the labour costs of enterprises are either related to the industry, related to the total payroll costs, or related to the employment volume of the employee. It is possible to obtain information on each employee's industrial classification, total payroll costs, employment, etc. from the above-mentioned statistics on earnings. Thorough a linkage of the two surveys, other labour costs of enterprises can be distributed to the individual employee of the enterprise on the basis of the specific characteristics of each individual. Due to the above mentioned method it is not possible to specify changes between 2001 and 2002. It should however be mentioned that actual legal changes has caused an increase in other labour costs. The financial contribution to wage earners' supplementary pension and the contribution to wage earners' guarantee fund has increased and make up 129 dkr per full time employee in 2002, which means a relatively higher contribution to public funds. Moreover a relatively large increase in the contribution to occupational disease insurance which means an increase in other compulsory costs. - From 2000 to 2001: There was an increase in other labour costs. The change is primarily due to increases in the business enterprises' contributions to the AER and reduction of the ATP compensation indicated by an increase in the net contributions to public funds. Moreover, work environment tax was introduced in 2001, which has been instrumental in a further increase of other labour costs. The increase is indicated by a larger amount paid to other compulsory costs. - From 1999 - 2000: There was an increase in other labour. The change is primarily due to relatively large increases in the business enterprises' staff costs, which are costs that are not compulsory. However, it must be mentioned that the business enterprises' costs on redundancy payments and anniversary bonus in 2000 are for the first time included in the statistics under other staff costs. Taking all industries as a whole there was a decrease in the refunds from public funds. This is primarily attributable to a reduction of the employers' ATP compensation. However, the decrease in refunds was counterbalanced by a fall in the contributions to the public funds, which was mainly due to the abolition of employers' labour market contributions.

Coherence - cross domain

Confederation of Danish Employers (DA), Finance Denmark (FIDA) and the Danish trade association for insurance companies and pension funds (F&P) publish statistics on "other labour costs" for their members. Together with the data from the rest of the enterprises in the sample collected by Statistics Denmark, these form the basis for the production of the total labour costs.

Coherence - internal

Not relevant for these statistics.