- Methods and Projects
- Standards and Classifications
Standardised Methodological Report
Labour Price Index
- 1Contact
- 1.1Contact organisation
National Statistics Institute of Spain
- 1.5Contact mail address
Avenida de Manoteras 50-52 - 28050 Madrid
- 1.1Contact organisation
- 2Metadata update
- 2.1Metadata last certified
27/06/2024
- 2.2Metadata last posted
28/06/2019
- 2.3Metadata last update
27/06/2024
- 2.1Metadata last certified
- 3Statistical presentation
- 3.1Data description
The Labour Price Index is an annual statistical operation whose objective is to measure the change in the labour price over time as a consequence of labour market pressures alone, that is, without this measure being affected by changes in the quality and quantity of work carried out or, the same thing, by discounting the compositional effect.
To obtain the Labour Price Index, the annually chain-linked Laspeyres index is used.
- 3.2Classification system
- CNAE-2009, secciones de B a S
B Industrias extractivas
C Industria manufacturera
D Suministro de energía eléctrica, gas, vapor y aire acondicionado
E Suministro de agua, actividades de saneamiento, gestión de residuos y descontaminación
F Construcción
G Comercio al por mayor y al por menor; reparación de vehículos de motor y motocicletas
H Transporte y almacenamiento
I Hostelería
J Información y comunicaciones
K Actividades financieras y de seguros
L Actividades inmobiliarias
M Actividades profesionales, científicas y técnicas
N Actividades administrativas y servicios auxiliares
O Administración Pública y Defensa; Seguridad Social obligatoria
P Educación
Q Actividades sanitarias y de servicios sociales
R Actividades artísticas, recreativas y de entretenimiento
S Otros servicios - CNO-11, grandes grupos
1 Directores y gerentes
2-0 Técnicos y profesionales científicos e intelectuales; ocupaciones militares
3 Técnicos; profesionales de apoyo
4 Empleados contables, administrativos y otros empleados de oficina
5 Trabajadores de los servicios de restauración, personales, protección y vendedores
6-7 Trabajadores cualificados en el sector agrícola, ganadero, forestal y pesquero; artesanos y trabajadores cualificados de las industrias manufactureras y la construcción (excepto operadores de instalaciones y maquinaria)
8 Operadores de instalaciones y maquinaria, y montadores
9 Ocupaciones elementales - Comunidades Autónomas
01 Andalucía
02 Aragón
03 Asturias, Principado de
04 Balears, Illes
05 Canarias
06 Cantabria
07 Castilla y León
08 Castilla - La Mancha
09 Cataluña
10 Comunitat Valenciana
11 Extremadura
12 Galicia
13 Madrid, Comunidad de
14 Murcia, Región de
15 Navarra, Comunidad Foral de
16 País Vasco
17 Rioja, La - Grupos de edad
Y-LT25 Menos de 25 años
Y25T34 De 25 a 34 años
Y35T44 De 35 a 44 años
Y45T54 De 45 a 54 años
Y-GE55 De 55 y más años - Intervalo temporal
Y-LT1 Menos de 1 año
Y1T3 De 1 a 3 años
Y4T10 De 4 a 10 años
Y11T20 De 11 a 20 años
Y-GE21 21 y más años - Nacionalidad
1 Española
2 Extranjera
. - Sexo
1 Hombres
2 Mujeres - Tipo de contrato o relación laboral
1 Indefinido
2 Temporal - Trabajadores, intervalos
WK1T49 De 1 a 49 trabajadores
WK50T99 De 50 a 199 trabajadores
WK-GE200 De 200 y más trabajadores
- CNAE-2009, secciones de B a S
- 3.3Sector coverage
The population scope is made up of employees from all local units, regardless of their size, and whose economic activity is included in Sections B to S of CNAE-09. Agricultural, livestock and fishing activities, domestic workers and extraterritorial organisations are excluded.
- 3.4Statistical concepts and definitions
- Earnings per normal working hour
This is obtained from annual gross earnings divided by the the number of hours paid during the same period. This is necessary for studying, under equal conditions, workers with different working days, especially part-time workers.
- Gross annual earnings in the reference year
Gross annual earnings cover remuneration in cash and in kind paid during the reference year before any tax deductions and social-security contributions payable by wage earners and retained by the employer.
The main difference between annual and monthly earnings is that annual earnings are not only the sum of the direct remuneration, bonuses and allowances paid to an employee in each pay period. Annual earnings hence usually exceed the figure produced by multiplying the "standard monthly package" by 12.
The "standard monthly package" includes those bonuses and allowances which occur in every pay period, even if the amount for these "regular" bonuses and allowances varies, but excludes bonuses and allowances not occurring in every pay period. Furthermore, monthly earnings leave payments in kind out of consideration. However, annual earnings also cover all "non-standard payments", i.e. payments not occurring in each pay period (variable 4.1.1), and payments in kind (variable 4.1.2).
Data for variable 4.1 should be provided for all employees for whom gross monthly earnings (variable 4.2) can be supplied, i.e. variable 4.1 should not be provided for employees for whom an estimate of an employee¿s gross monthly earnings is not feasible. These employees will be excluded from the sample.
It does not matter if the employee¿s earnings do not always relate to a full year. Some employees will have periods of unpaid absence, or will have joined or left the enterprise during the year. The actual gross earnings in the reference year are required. When variable 3.1 (number of weeks to which the annual earnings relate) is less than 52 weeks, variable 3.1 will be used to gross up variable 4.1 and its components. - Social Security contribution account
This is composed of a group of workers employed by others, who carry out their employment activity in one or more workplaces at a single company, within a single province and generally under a single main activity, although not necessarily so, and with standard features as regards Social Security contribution.
- Earnings per normal working hour
- 3.5Statistical unit
Two types of units are used as observation units:
1. The Contribution Accounts collected in the General Register of Social Security Contribution Accounts.
The Social Security Contribution Account is a concept traditionally used in salary and labour cost surveys, both by the INE and other bodies competent in this area.
The Social Security Contribution Account is made up of a group of employees who carry out their work in one or several work centres for the same company, within the same province and generally under the same main activity, but not necessarily, and with homogeneous characteristics with regard to Social Security contributions.2. Employees associated with the Accounts
As an analytical unit the labour price index measures the evolution in the labour price of the employees included in the study.
- 3.6Statistical population
The contribution accounts being studied are those whose economic activity belongs to Sections B to S of the CNAE-09 and which are in the General Register of Social Security Contribution Accounts as of 30 September of the reference year.
The workers included are those who work as employees in the contribution accounts being studied in the survey and who have been registered with Social Security for more than 2 months during the year, one of them being the month of October. The inclusion of this month is due to the fact that it has the advantage of being considered "normal" in all EU countries, in the sense that it is scarcely affected by seasonal variations or by payments due for more than one month, such as Christmas payments.
Presidents, board members and, in general, all personnel whose remuneration is not mainly in the form of a salary, but in the form of commissions or benefits, are excluded.
- 3.7Reference area
The geographical scope covers the entire national territory yielding results by Autonomous Community
- 3.8Time coverage
The statistical operation is produced annually.
- 3.9Base period
The base year is 2016
- 3.1Data description
- 4Unit of measure
- 4.1Unit of measure
Index number
Variation rates: in percent
- 4.1Unit of measure
- 5Reference period
- 5.1Reference period
The reference period is the calendar year.
Data referred to the period: Anual A: 2022
- 5.1Reference period
- 6Institutional mandate
- 6.1Legal acts and other agreements
The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. The National Statistical Plan 2009-2012 was approved by the Royal Decree 1663/2008. It contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15 December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024. (Statistics of the State Administration).
- 6.2Data sharing
The exchanges of information needed to elaborate statistics between the INE and the rest of the State statistical offices (Ministerial Departments, independent bodies and administrative bodies depending on the State General Administration), or between these offices and the Autonomic statistical offices, are regulated in the LFEP (Law of the Public Statistic Function). This law also regulates the mechanisms of statistical coordination, and concludes cooperation agreements between the different offices when necessary.
- 6.1Legal acts and other agreements
- 7Confidentiality
- 7.1Confidentiality - policy
The Statistical Law No. 12/1989 specifies that the INE cannot publish, or make otherwise available, individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society
- 7.2Confidentiality - data treatment
INE provides information on the protection of confidentiality at all stages of the statistical process: INE questionnaires for the operations in the national statistical plan include a legal clause protecting data under statistical confidentiality. Notices prior to data collection announcing a statistical operation notify respondents that data are subject to statistical confidentiality at all stages. For data processing, INE employees have available the INE data protection handbook, which specifies the steps that should be taken at each stage of processing to ensure reporting units' individual data are protected. The microdata files provided to users are anonymised.
The Labour Price Index is a statistical operation included in the National Statistics Plan, therefore subject to the Law on the Public Statistics Function of 9 May 1989 and, consequently, data is protected by statistical confidentiality at all stages of its processing.
- 7.1Confidentiality - policy
- 8Release policy
- 8.1Release calendar
The advance release calendar that shows the precise release dates for the coming year is disseminated in the last quarter of each year.
- 8.2Release calendar access
The calendar is disseminated on the INEs Internet website (Publications Calendar)
- 8.3User access
The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website (www.ine.es/en) almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in the European Statistics Code of Practice
- 8.1Release calendar
- 9Frequency of dissemination
- 9.1Frequency of dissemination
The frequency of data publication is annual.
- 9.1Frequency of dissemination
- 10Accessibility and clarity
- 10.1News release
The results of the statistical operations are normally disseminated by using press releases that can be accessed via both the corresponding menu and the Press Releases Section in the web
- 10.2Publications
Users can access the data through the INE website. Specifically, the following links appear:
- Press release: contains a summary of the results obtained in the reference year.
- Detailed results: where the different series produced are presented.
- 10.3On-line database
INEbase is the system the INE uses to store statistical information on the Internet. It contains all the information the INE produces in electronic formats. The primary organisation of the information follows the theme-based classification of the Inventory of Statistical Operations of the State General Administration . The basic unit of INEbase is the statistical operation, defined as the set of activities that lead to obtaining statistical results on a determined sector or subject based on the individually collected data. Also included in the scope of this definition are synthesis preparation.
INEbase / Labour market /Wages and labour costs / Labour price index or by accessing it directly via the following link:
- 10.4Micro-data access
A lot of statistical operations disseminate public domain anonymized files, available free of charge for downloading in the INE website Microdata Section
There is no microdata for this statistical operation.
- 10.5Other
It is possible to request tailored information from the INE Information area. Limitations on confidentiality or accuracy are taken into account when processing such requests.
The link to the INE Information area is:
- 10.6Documentation on methodology
For a detailed description of the methods and concepts used, see the following link:https://www.ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/en/operacion.htm?c=Estadistica_C&cid=1254736177027&menu=metodologia&idp=1254735976596
- 10.7Quality documentation
Sections 10.6 to 17 of this document are the user-oriented quality report for this operation.
- 10.1News release
- 11Quality management
- 11.1Quality assurance
Quality assurance framework for the INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 16 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.
The process for the preparation of the statistic has established checks to detect and correct errors in order to guarantee its quality.
The index is calculated once the sources of information used for its production have finished the collection, validation and imputing processes. Once produced, the internal consistency and the temporal evolution of the results are checked.
- 11.2Quality assessment
The main source of this statistical operation is the Annual Wage Structure Survey (AWSS) and the Quadrennial Wage Structure Survey (QWSS). These statistics are high quality products. Its sample size provides indicators up to the regional level.
The use of administrative sources to obtain the data reduces the cost of the survey without affecting the accuracy of the indices. In addition, to ensure such accuracy, the data is subjected to validation and consistency checks between the variables used, which makes the accuracy and reliability of the final data very high.
- 11.1Quality assurance
- 12Relevance
- 12.1User needs
The users of the survey include:
- Eurostat and the European Commission.
- The European Central Bank
- Ministries and other public agencies.
- Territorial administrations (Autonomous Communities, City Councils....).
- Companies and non-profit institutions.
- Researchers and universities.
- Individuals.
Each of these users has different needs according to the destination and utility of the information they need.
- 12.2User satisfaction
The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...
On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date.(Click next link)
- 12.3Completeness
Disaggregated indices are prepared for the different variables associated with the workplace (activity section, size of the establishment and Autonomous Community) and the worker (occupation, sex, type of contract, age, seniority and nationality).
strong>Data completeness rate: R1= 100%.
- 12.1User needs
- 13Accuracy and reliability
- 13.1Overall accuracy
The accuracy of the statistics is determined by the accuracy of the information sources used in its production: the Annual Wage Structure Surveys (AWSS) and Quadrennial Wage Structure Surveys (QWSS).
In these surveys, the survey design attempts to minimise sampling errors and the different processes of the surveys are aimed at eliminating or reducing, as much as possible, errors in the same, both in the collection phase (response rate and filtering control) and in subsequent editing and imputing.
- 13.2Sampling error
This does not apply as it is produced from the results of the Annual Wage Structure Survey (AWSS) and Quadrennial Wage Structure Survey (QWSS). The sampling errors of these surveys are available (https://www.ine.es/dynt3/inebase/es/index.htm?padre=4563&capsel=4566)
- 13.3Non-sampling error
Non-sampling errors are checked throughout the entire statistical process.
As the statistic is prepared from the results of the Annual Wage Structure Surveys (AWSS) and Quadrennial Wage Structure Surveys (QWSS) that have already been subject to control, we refers to the information regarding this point in said surveys.
- 13.1Overall accuracy
- 14Timeliness and punctuality
- 14.1Timeliness
The LPI results are published within 18 months of the end of the reference period of the data.
Opportunity of final results TP2= 18 months
- 14.2Punctuality
Data dissemination is carried out according to the structural statistics availability calendar that INE develops and publishes each year.
- 14.1Timeliness
- 15Coherence and Comparability
- 15.1Comparability - geographical
The LPI data are fully comparable between regions since the calculation method of this statistical operation, in all its phases, is the same across the entire national territory.
- 15.2Comparability - over time
The LPI data are fully comparable over time since the start of the series (year 2008).
Length of comparable time series CC2=15
- 15.3Coherence - cross domain
The use of the same national classification of economic activities allows the comparison of the information with other economic statistics concerning common variables.
- 15.4Coherence - internal
Internal consistency is guaranteed as the information sources with which it is prepared also benefit from internal consistency, which allows the direct application of the index formula.
- 15.1Comparability - geographical
- 16Cost and burden
- 16.1Cost and burden
The estimate of the budgetary appropriation necessary to finance this statistic foreseen in the 2024 Annual Programme is 7.93 thousand euros.
The burden on respondents is null, since the statistic is prepared using existing information.
- 16.1Cost and burden
- 17Data revision
- 17.1Data revision - policy
The INE of Spain has a policy which regulates the basic aspects of statistical data revision, seeking to ensure process transparency and product quality. This policy is laid out in the document approved by the INE board of directors on 13 March of 2015, which is available on the INE website, in the section "Methods and projects/Quality and Code of Practice/INE’s Quality management/INE’s Revision policy" (link).
This general policy sets the criteria that the different type of revisions should follow: routine revision- it is the case of statistics whose production process includes regular revisions-; more extensive revision- when methodological or basic reference source changes take place-; and exceptional revision- for instance, when an error appears in a published statistic-.
The LPI data are definitive from the first time it is published and therefore are not subject to revision.
- 17.2Data revision - practice
The data are published when they are definitive, not subject to revision.
- 17.1Data revision - policy
- 18Statistical processing
- 18.1Source data
The main sources of information for the compilation of the LPI are results from the Annual Wage Structure Survey (AWSS) and the Quadrennial Wage Structure Survey (QWSS). To obtain the variable of the worker's age, information contained in the General Social Security Affiliation File is used.
From said data, the profit per hour worked is obtained, as well as the annual weightings necessary to calculate the Laspeyres index.
- 18.2Frequency of data collection
The collection of data from the Annual Wage Structure Survey (AWSS) and Quadrennial Wage Structure Survey (QWSS) results is carried out annually.
- 18.3Data collection
The information from the Annual Wage Structure Surveys (AWSS) and Quadrennial Wage Structure Surveys (QWSS) for use in the preparation of the LPI is obtained after completing the collection, validation and imputing processes of the questionnaires.
The administrative information from Social Security is sent digitally from the Social Security Fund.
- 18.4Data validation
Users are referred to the validation section of the Annual Wage Structure Survey (AWSS) and Quadrennial Wage Structure Survey (QWSS).
- 18.5Data compilation
See the formulas used to obtain the Laspeyres index in the methodology document:
- 18.6Adjustment
No adjustments have been made
- 18.1Source data
- 19Comment
- 19.1Comment
- 19.1Comment