21.08.2017 The Czech Statistical Office May Not Accept the Government Decision on Wages in the Non-Business Sphere

21 August 2017

The data on the average wages in the non-business sphere, which the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs derives the amounts of salaries of representatives of state power, judges and public prosecutors from, was published for 2016 for the last time. The indicator was determined by the former methodology of the European statistics. As the statistics had to switch to a new European standard, it is not possible to provide reliable and over-time stable data on average wages in the non-business sphere.

The proposal, the Government has adopted today, however assigns to process further the data according to the original methodology to the statisticians. The Czech Statistical Office considers this decision to be unimplementable and unacceptable. The Office position is supported by an expert opinion, which states the indicator may not be defined by the new standard even in a comparable way. If the Czech Statistical Office is forced to determine the new content of the original indicator in an alternative way it would be a political, not professional decision. It is, due to its legal status of independence and impartiality, an inappropriate decision to the Office. A similar procedure would also be in a direct contradiction to principles defined in the European Statistics Code of Practice.

The Czech Statistical Office raised principal comments to the document draft in a shortened interministerial commentary procedure yet these comments were neither discussed nor applied. The Office, inter alia, in line with conclusions of the expert group, proposed the reference to the data on wages in the non-business sphere in the act on salaries of judges and other representatives of state power is replaced with the wage in the national economy.

For more information on this you can see, for instance, press release of 14 June 2016 or an article in the journal of Statistika&My 5/2016.

Contact
Petra Báčová
Spokeswoman of the Czech Statistical Office
T 274 052 017 | M 778 727 232
E petra.bacova@czso.cz | Twitter @ statistickyurad