Wage, salary fall in govt sector in Q2

The nominal earnings of wage and salary decreased in government sector from April to June while earning rose by 0.5 per cent in the private sector, according to Statistics Finland.

In the central government sector the wage and salary fell by 1.1 percent and in the local government sector 1.2 percent.

The drop in the public sector was caused by the cut in holiday bonuses agreed on in the Competitiveness Pact.

On average, the nominal earnings of wage and salary earners rose by 0.1 per cent during the second quarter of 2017 when compared to the respective period in 2016. Real earnings fell by 0.7 per cent compared to the second quarter of the previous year.

The cut in holiday bonuses agreed on in the Competitiveness Pact has been taken into account in the index of wage and salary earnings and it has a negative effect on the development of the index of wage and salary earnings in the central and local government sectors starting from the first quarter of 2017.

The figure examines the development of the index of wage and salary earnings in 2015 to 2017. The examination ends in the last published quarter, that is, the second quarter of 2017.

The cut in the public sector holiday bonuses is visible in the development of index of wage and salary earnings in the central and local government sectors. For both, the index of wage and salary earnings falls clearly in the first quarter of 2017.