A 2019 report released by the Kosovo Agency of Statistics, ASK, has shown that between 2012 and 2018, average salaries in the private sector in Kosovo grew at a much slower rate than those in the public sector.

In 2012, the average gross salary in the private sector was 367 euros per month. By 2018, this figure had risen to 401 euros per month: an increase of 9.3 per cent, or 34 euros in six years, or just over five euros a year. 

In terms of net salary, the money taken home after taxes, the increase was even smaller, with a rise of just 31 euros – from 333 euros per month in 2012 to 364 euros by 2018. 

Meanwhile, in the public sector average salaries rose by over 40 per cent. 

In 2012, the average gross salary in the public sector stood at 407 euros per month, but by 2018 this figure had reached 573 euros, an increase of 166 euros or 40.8 per cent. As for average net salaries in the public sector, the increase in percentage terms was even greater, with a rise of 44.1 per cent.

According to the report, the highest average salaries were among employees in the country’s more than 50 public enterprises, mostly run by local municipalities. In 2012, the average gross salary among employees in this sector was 518 euros per month, a figure which had increased to 699 euros per month six years later. 

Average net salary among employees in public enterprises in 2018 was 620 euros per month, nearly double that of the private sector average.

As well as growth in average salaries in the private sector lagging behind those in the public sector, the ASK report also identifies a large disparity between different industries. The lowest salaries are in the field of agriculture, forestry and fishing with an average gross salary of 256 euros, leaving an average net salary of 237 euros per month. 

The most profitable industries for employees are shown to be in ‘electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply’, where net salaries average out at 743 euros per month, more than three times higher than those in the agricultural industry. Other industries with higher average net salaries include ‘information and communication’ (635 euros) and ‘mining and quarrying’ (569 euros).

Employees in the private sector are estimated to count for more than three-fourths of the nearly 400,000 people officially registered as employed in Kosovo, while there are roughly 90,000 people working in the public sector, mostly concentrated in educational institutions, the health sector and other public professions.