ISTANBUL

Hourly labor costs in the EU28 increased by 2.8 percent year-on-year in the last quarter of 2018, according to the EU's statistical office on Tuesday.

Eurostat said that labor costs have two main components -- wages and salaries, and non-wage costs.

"In the EU28, the costs of hourly wages and salaries rose by 3.0 percent and the non-wage component rose by 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018," Eurostat said.

It added that in the third quarter of the last year, annual rises were 2.7 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively.

According to Eurostat's definition, wage and salary costs include direct remuneration, bonuses, and allowances paid by an employer to an employee, payments to employees saving schemes, payments for days not worked and remuneration in kind such as food, drink, fuel, company cars, etc.

"Labor costs other than wages and salaries include the employers’ social contributions plus employment taxes regarded as labor costs less subsidies intended to refund part or all of the employer’s cost of direct remuneration," it noted.

Both construction and services sectors saw a 2.8-percent annual hike in labor costs per hour in the October-December period -- followed by the industry (up 2.4 percent), official data showed.

It also underlined that the highest annual increase in hourly labor costs for the whole economy was seen in Romania with a 13.1 percent hike, while Malta posted a decline (0.5 percent) in the same period.