Background

The application shows the full-time equivalent gross earnings of employees registered in Estonia for the selected period (quarter). Data are taken from the employment register (TÖR) and Annexes 1 and 2 of tax declaration form TSD (declaration of income and social tax, unemployment insurance premiums, and contributions to mandatory funded pension). The register extract is subject to the following conditions:

1. The data cover all the employees

• who had a valid entry including their job title in the employment register

• whose employment type in the employment register was “Employment Contract”, “Public Service” or “Higher Civil Servants”

• who had received income from work (i.e. employment income was greater than 0) in the relevant quarter

2. Staff of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defence have been excluded.

Average monthly gross earnings of the employee in a position are calculated on the basis of payments declared by the employer for the selected period in Annexes 1 and 2 of tax declaration form TSD. Only income from work is taken into account when calculating the earnings of employees. For this, payment types 10, 12, 13 and 70 of form TSD Annex 1 and payment types 120, 121, 126, 127, 144, 145 and 270 of Annex 2 are used.

The methodology is similar to the methodology for average monthly gross wages and salaries (statistical activity 21101).

The methodology used in the application differs from the tables of the average monthly gross income per employee (statistical activity 50101) in terms of payment types and location. In this application, earnings are shown by the location of the workplace, whereas in the gross income statistics they are shown by the person’s place of residence.

In the application, earnings are shown by occupational group, but it is possible to search by individual occupations as well. In that case, the statistics for the larger occupational group are provided.

Classification of Occupations – the application uses the Classification of Occupations to classify occupations. Occupations are divided into defined groups based on the content, duties and qualifications required by the job. There are five levels in the hierarchy of the Estonian classification, the first four of which follow the international base classification ISCO-08 (International Standard Classification of Occupations, 2008). 

To explain the hierarchy of the Occupational Classification, let's consider the employee whose occupational title recorded in the employment register is gardener. Gardeners belong to the occupational group “Gardeners, Horticultural and Nursery Growers”. Generally, they are considered skilled workers in crop production and, more generally, skilled agricultural workers. All skilled agricultural workers belong to the main group of occupations “Skilled Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Workers”.

Average earnings – arithmetic mean, the sum of the earnings of all employees divided by the number of earners.

Median earnings – the earnings at which half the employees in the occupation earn more and half earn less. For example, median earnings of €1,000 mean that half of the employees in this position earn up to €1,000 and half of the employees earn more than €1,000 per month.

Comparison of men's and women's earnings – the difference between the average earnings of men and women.

The application shows employees' wages by the county in which the workplace is located according to the employment register entry made by the employer. This may or may not coincide with the employee's place of residence.

It may happen that users try to enter their occupation in the earnings application but do not get any results. This may be the case, for example, if the occupation is rare in Estonia in general or in a particular county or sex or age group. The earnings application also does not publish statistics on employees of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defence or their administrative area. This means, for example, that the earnings of policemen and rescuers cannot be found in the application.

Anyone can check their occupational title in the employment register. To do this, sign into the Tax and Customs Board's e-services environment e-MTA, select “Registers and inquiries” from the left-hand menu and then “My employments”.  

This is the message the user receives when there are too few employees in the selected group. Data on average and median earnings are not shown for groups of less than 20 people. It may also happen that the results are hidden because another indicator could be calculated via the indicator in question if it were published. For example: if there was only 1 person under 25 years of age in Estonia who is a specialist medical practitioner, his/her earnings would be calculable if the overall average earnings of specialist medical practitioners in Estonia and the earnings of all age groups were given. Therefore, in addition to the age group "< 25", the statistics for another age group are hidden.