MADRID, 16 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The average labor cost per worker and month (which includes salaries and social security contributions) rose 6.2% in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2022, reaching 2,897.87 euros, its highest rise since the second quarter of 2021, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported this Friday.

This increase in labor cost, with which nine consecutive quarters of increases have accumulated, is two points higher than that registered in the third quarter of 2022, when it increased by 4.2%.

Labor cost is made up of wage cost and other costs. Between January and March, wages (all remunerations, both in cash and in kind) rose 6% year-on-year in gross terms, reaching an average of 2,126.63 euros per worker and month, the highest figure in a first quarter since the beginning of the series, in the year 2000.

The supply of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning was the activity where wages rose the most in the first quarter. His average salary increased by 11.9% year-on-year between January and March, up to 6,685.68 euros per month.

Other costs (non-salary costs) totaled 771.24 euros per worker and month in the first quarter of the year, with a year-on-year rise of 6.8%.

During the first quarter of 2023, the agreed average weekly working time, considering full-time and part-time together, was 34.7 hours. Of these, 3.9 hours a week were lost, of which 2.4 hours were not worked due to vacations and holidays; 1 hours is due to temporary disability leave; 0.3 hours for maternity and paternity leave, and another 0.2 hours for other permits, strikes, and technical, economic, organizational, production, and/or force majeure reasons.

According to the INE, the labor cost per effective hour rose by 4.2% in the annual rate in the first quarter of 2023 due to the 1.9% increase in effective working hours.