Meanwhile Latvia – which is in both the EU and the euro area – has hourly labour costs of just €16.3 – so roughly half the EU average.
Latvia’s figure is lower than both Lithuania’s (€17.8) and Estonia’s (€21.1)
The estimates come from data on labour costs levels published by Eurostat on March 31st.
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Two main components of labour costs are wages and salaries, and non-wage costs (e.g. employers’ social contributions). The share of non-wage costs in total labour costs for the whole economy was 24.8% in the EU and 25.6% in the euro area. The lowest shares of non-wage costs in the EU were recorded in Romania (4.8%), Lithuania (5.5%) and Malta (5.8%) and the highest in France (32.3%), Sweden (31.7%) and Slovakia (28.6%).
Hourly labour costs up by 4.1% in the EU in 2025
In 2025, hourly labour costs at the whole economy level expressed in euros rose by 4.1% in the EU and by 3.8% in the euro area, compared with 2024. In Latvia they increased by 7.9%.
Within the euro area, hourly labour costs increased in all countries, except Malta (-0.5%). The largest increases were recorded in Bulgaria (+13.1%), Croatia (+11.6%), Slovenia (+9.3%) and Lithuania (+9.2%), whereas the lowest were in France (+2.0%) and Italy (+3.2%), followed by Spain, Cyprus and Luxembourg (+3.5% each).
For EU countries outside the euro area, the hourly labour costs expressed in national currency increased in all countries, with the largest increases recorded in Romania (+10.6%), Hungary (+8.9%) and Poland (+8.8%). They increased the least in Denmark (+3.0%).
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