Lithuania has not yet surpassed Estonia in salary levels, although Eurostat data may mistakenly create such an impression, claims Rasmus Kattai, head of the Economic Policy and Forecasting Department at the Bank of Estonia.
“Eurostat published a comparison of salaries in EU countries for last year – annual gross salary for full-time employment,” Kattai wrote on social media. “The problem with this specific statistic is that the data from different countries are not comparable. For example, in Lithuania, the gross salary includes social security tax, while in Estonia, it does not.”
“Therefore, the annual gross salary in Lithuania (€29,104) and in Estonia (€26,564) are essentially incomparable, and Lithuania has not yet surpassed Estonia,” Kattai explained. “If you subtract taxes, the monthly net salary in Estonia is about €150 higher than in Lithuania.”
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