Gender pay gap, monthly gross
1. Contact
Responsible agency
Unit
Contact person
Position
Email (agency)
Phone
2. Statistical presentation
Data description
Gender pay gap indicator is used for annual comparison of earnings by gender in Latvia.
Statistical concepts and definitions
Statistical unit
Central and local government bodies, state- and municipal-owned enterprises, private companies, sole proprietors, foundations, associations, and funds employing at least one person.
Statistical population
Target population consists of all statistical units – central and local government bodies, state- and municipal-owned enterprises, private companies, sole proprietors, foundations, associations, and funds employing at least one person – that were economically active in 2025.
The target population of the survey does not include:
- religious organisations;
- agricultural holdings and fish farms;
- rural handicraft businesses;
- family businesses;
- natural persons engaged in economic activity.
Statistical units whose economic activity is classified under NACE Rev. 2 codes beginning with 97, 98 or 99 are also excluded from the target population.
3. Institutional mandate
Legal acts and other agreements
N/A
4. Accessibility and clarity
On-line database
5. Comparability
Comparability - geographical
Eurostat (statistical office of the European Union) is responsible for publishing high-quality Europe-wide statistics and indicators that enable comparisons between countries and regions. Statistics for earnings is available in the Eurostat database, in section Labour market / Earnings.
Length of comparable time series
N/A
6. Coherence
Coherence- cross domain
N/A
7. Statistical processing (data source etc.)
Source data
Information is obtained by compiling data from quarterly CSB statistical reports on the activities of commercial enterprises, central and local government bodies, foundations, associations, and funds (questionnaires 2-darbs, 2-darbs-pašvaldības, and 2-darbs (īsā)), as well as from administrative data sources.
Questionnaire 2-darbs (īsā) is submitted by commercial enterprises, foundations, associations, and funds with 10 to 99 employees.
Questionnaire 2-darbs-pašvaldības is completed by municipalities and other municipal institutions.
All other statistical units included in the sample submit questionnaire 2-darbs.
Administrative data are obtained from employer reports submitted to the State Revenue Service:
- monthly report on compulsory state social insurance contributions from employee earnings, personal income tax, and the business risk state duty;
- report on income of seasonal agricultural workers, personal income tax, and social insurance contributions; and micro-enterprise tax declaration.
Data collection
In 2025, a total of 5.3 thousand respondents are surveyed each quarter.
Central and local government bodies, commercial companies in which central or local government holds 50% or more of the capital, and all private sector businesses with 100 or more employees are surveyed fully. Other statistical units are surveyed using a simple random sampling method, with strata pre-defined by economic activity and enterprise size (based on the number of employees). In addition, all general government sector units – that is, every unit with an institutional sector classification code starting with S13 – are included in the sample, regardless of any other criteria.
The sampling frame was built using information from the CSB Statistical Business Register on economically active units. At the time the sample was drawn, the frame included all statistical units meeting the target population criteria – a total of 100 594 units.
| Target population of Q1 2025 | Full-scope survey | Sample survey | Imputed | Total |
Central and local government bodies (Institutional sector classification codes: S130110, S130120, S130150, S130160, S130170, S130310, S130320, S130340 S130400) | 383 | 0 | 0 | 383 |
| State and municipal businesses (SVTK* code starting with 1 or 2, or 82, or 83) | 353 | 0 | 0 | 353 |
| Private sector businesses (SVTK code does not start with 1 or 2, or 82 or 83, and the third and fourth digits are not 71 or 77; individual merchants with third and fourth digits of SVTK code 71 or 77) | 1 121 | 11 165 | 82 348 | 92 766 |
| Foundations, associations and funds (Institutional sector classification code: S15000) | 11 | 239 | 6 842 | 7 092 |
| Total | 1 868 | 11 404 | 89 190 | 100 594 |
*SVTK – CSB typological classification of statistical units
Data compilation
The information is obtained from statistical reports submitted quarterly, which contain data for each month. Annual data are compiled by aggregating the quarterly information submitted throughout the year.
Data collected from sampled respondents are extrapolated using weights assigned to each sampling unit. The weighted indicators are initially aggregated at the NACE Rev. 2 class (four-digit), group (three-digit), division (two-digit) and section (letter) level.
Each quarter, data summaries are analysed to assess the reliability of the results obtained through the imputation and weighting of non-responding and indirectly surveyed statistical units. Summary indicators are compared with those from previous periods and with administrative data sources.
Wage and salary indicators cover employees for whom working time is recorded and wages and salaries calculated.
As of the first quarter of 2025, data compilation is fully based on the enterprise definition.
The enterprise is the smallest combination of legal units that is an organisational unit producing goods or services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making, especially for the allocation of its current resources. An enterprise carries out one or more activities at one or more locations. An enterprise may be a sole legal unit.
The average monthly wages or salaries (earnings) are calculated by dividing the estimated wage and salary fund by the average number employees in full-time units.
Average number of employees in full-time units is calculated separately for full-time and part-time employees for whom wages and salaries were calculated, and the result is summed. Only full-time employees who were not employed for the entire month are converted into full-time units, using information on the number of hours paid for these employees as reported. Part-time employees are converted into full-time units as follows: the number of hours paid for part-time employees is divided by the number of hours paid to full-time employees, and the result is multiplied by the number of full-time employees.
The gross wage and salary fund includes basic wages and salaries (monthly or post-based pay), remuneration for the time worked or output produced, regular and irregular bonuses and additional payments, additional payments for over-time work, payments for annual and supplementary leave, additional payments related to leave, holiday allowances and compensation for unused leave, sick pay (under sick-leave certificate A), payments for other days not worked, employee’s compulsory social security contributions and personal income tax, as well as wage subsidies.
The gender pay gap measures the difference in average earnings between men and women. It is calculated as the difference between the average monthly gross wages and salaries of male and female paid employees, expressed as a percentage of the average monthly gross wages and salaries of male paid employees. For example, a gender gap of 8.7% means that women earn, on average, 8.7% less per month than men. Conversely, a gender pay gap of –8.7% means that women earn, on average, 8.7% more than men.
The gender pay gap is calculated using the following formula:
[(average monthly gross earnings of men – average monthly gross earnings of women) / average monthly gross earnings of men] × 100.