Average salaries in Georgia increase to 1,319 GEL in Q4 2019

Average monthly earnings in Georgia increased by 117.6 GEL ($39/€34.9) in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2019 compared to the same period of the previous year and amounted to 1,319.6 GEL ($438.1/€391.8), reports the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).

The highest monthly earnings were observed in the following fields:

• Professional, scientific and technical activities – 2,216.3 GEL ($735.9/€658)
• Information and communication – 2,071.3 GEL ($687.7/€614.9)
• Construction – 2,037.1 GEL ($676.4/€604.8)
• Financial and insurance activities – 1,935.9 GEL ($642.8/€574.7)

In Q4 of 2019 the average earnings for women reached 1,018.5 GEL ($338.2/€302.4), while men averaged while 1,593.2 GEL ($529/€473).

The annual growth of earnings for women amounted to 112.5 GEL ($37.4/€33.4), while for men it amounted to 124.7 GEL ($41.4/€37).

In Q4 of 2019 the average monthly earnings of employees in the business sector increased by 86 GEL ($28.6/€25.5) and amounted to 1,404.7 GEL ($466.4/€417).

The average monthly earnings in the non-business and financial sector increased by 154 GEL ($51.1/€45.7) and amounted to 1,166.4 GEL ($387.3/€346.3).

What is the methodology Geostat uses while calculating average salaries?

While calculating average salaries, Geostat uses gross nominal salaries, not net salaries. Also, these numbers include bonuses.

Methodology of the calculation only includes persons which are hired and does not include people who are self-employed.

Geostat uses the arithmetic mean to calculate average monthly salaries, although the median method is better to use when the data are significantly different from each other.

The issue is that if only the salaries of the most highly paid people are raised, this does not affect the median salary, though it increases the mean salary.

Geostat receives salaries data not from the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finance (which records income of citizens), but from an independent survey conducted by Geostat, which collects data from about 15,000 businesses and organizations in Georgia, including large corporations, government agencies, insurance companies, banks and credit unions.

In this study, Geostat did not use individual data (that is, the salary of individuals based on their position) to calculate the median salary, but the number of employees and their salaries.

Meanwhile, the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) is developing a new methodology to calculate average monthly salaries starting 2020.

• Georgian National Statistics Office to develop new methodology to calculate average monthly salaries

Back in November 2019, Geostat Director Gogita Todradze said that starting 2020 Geostat will have an opportunity to process administrative data and to offer public average salaries calculated by the median mean, which is a better indicator compared to arithmetic mean when the data is significantly different from each other.