The European Parliament adopted by 459 votes to 76, with 49 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on European Union labour market statistics on businesses, repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 and Regulations (EC) No 450/2003 and (EC) No 453/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

The proposed Regulation establishes a common framework for systematic production of high-quality European Union labour market statistics on businesses.

The European Parliament’s position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure amends the proposal as follows:

Data requirements

Labour market statistics on businesses should cover the following domains and topics:

(a) earnings: (i) structure of earnings; (ii) gender pay gap; (iii) collective bargaining coverage; (iv) level of statutory minimum wage, if applicable; (v) statutory minimum wage coverage, if applicable;

(b) labour costs: (i) structure of labour costs; (ii) labour cost index;

(c) labour demand: (i) job vacancies.

The amended text stressed the need to create equal opportunities and ensure them equal access to participate in society and economy, timely, comparable and accurate data on participation of persons with disabilities in labour market.

The data collected in the context of the labour market statistics on businesses regarding the structure of earnings, the gender pay gap and the structure of labour costs can also contribute to a better understanding of the gender pension gap in the Member States.

The implementation of the principle of equal treatment irrespective of racial or ethnic origin requires timely, comparable and accurate data on wages and job characteristics of persons of different racial or ethnic origins. Such data will provide much needed assessment of progress in reducing discrimination in relation to employment and working conditions, including dismissals and pay.

Sources and methods

To limit the administrative and financial burden on enterprises, in particular on social enterprises, SMEs and micro-enterprises, the national statistical authorities should consider administrative and innovative sources already available to national, regional or local authorities, the main aim of which is not the provision of statistics, as a substitute for or a complement to statistical surveys, subject to the quality requirements for official statistics.

The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts to ensure that the use of those other sources is necessary and proportionate to achieve the objective under this Regulation.

Requirement for the processing of personal data

Where the activities to be carried out under this Regulation involve the processing of personal data, such processing should be proportionate. In accordance with the data minimisation principle set out in those Regulations, data provided under this Regulation should be aggregated to such a degree that individuals cannot be identified.

Feasibility and pilot studies

In order to improve the labour market statistics on businesses or to limit the administrative and financial burden on enterprises, in particular SMEs and micro-enterprises, the Commission (Eurostat) may initiate feasibility and pilot studies. The purpose of such studies is to, inter alia , improve the quality and comparability of data and to improve the cost-effectiveness of data collection.

The Union financial contribution should not exceed 80% of the eligible costs.

The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs adopted the report by Irene TINAGLI (S&D, IT) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on European Union labour market statistics on businesses, repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 and Regulations (EC) No 450/2003 and (EC) No 453/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

This Regulation lays down a common legal framework for the development, production and dissemination of labour market statistics on businesses in the Union.

The committee responsible recommended that the European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the proposal as follows:

The amendments introduced by Members stress the following points:

- the prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances and the monitoring of adequate minimum wages require accurate information on the evolution of hourly labour costs and wage levels¸ the rate of collective bargaining coverage, the level of the statutory minimum wage and the share of workers covered by it across Member States;

- it is important for analytical purposes that an appropriate amount of back data is available to be able to assess labour cost indices over time. However, in order to reduce the burden imposed on Member States, the transmission should be limited to back data that at least covers the calendar years 2024 and 2025;

- the application, monitoring and evaluation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of women and men in matters of employment and occupation require comparable data on the wages received by women and men ;

- there is a need for timely, comparable and accurate data on the participation of people with disabilities in the labour market. Such data will provide a much-needed assessment of progress in joint efforts to reduce employment rate gaps and increase the employment rate of people with disabilities;

- the implementation of the principle of equal treatment irrespective of racial or ethnic origin requires timely, comparable and accurate data on wages and job characteristics of persons of different racial or ethnic origins . Such data will provide much needed assessment of progress in reducing discrimination in relation to employment and working conditions, including dismissals and pay;

- data collected in the framework of labour market statistics on enterprises concerning the structure of earnings, the gender pay gap and the structure of labour costs could also contribute to a better understanding of the gender pension gap in the Member States;

- the Commission (Eurostat) should provide further guidance on the management of data from low quality sources;

- the Commission should be empowered to adopt delegated acts in order to specify which sources, other than survey data and administrative records, may be used to collect and transmit data under the Regulation;

- Member States should work to ensure adequate sharing of relevant data between authorities, in order to ensure that reporting burden is as small as possible on businesses;

- where the activities to be undertaken under the Regulation involve the processing of personal data , this must be proportionate and in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 and Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

- in order to improve the labour market statistics on businesses or to limit the administrative and financial burden on enterprises, in particular SMEs and micro-enterprises, the Commission (Eurostat) may initiate feasibility and pilot studies .

The results of those studies should be evaluated by the Commission (Eurostat) in cooperation with Member States and the main stakeholders, including social partners. The Commission (Eurostat) may recommend how pilot studies should be integrated as permanent solutions.

The Union financial contribution should not exceed 80% of the eligible costs.

Lastly, the regulation should apply from 1 January 2026.

PURPOSE: to establish a common framework for systematic production of high quality European Union labour market statistics on businesses.

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: labour market statistics on businesses in the European Union are required for the design, implementation and evaluation of the Union policies, in particular those addressing economic, social and territorial cohesion, the European employment strategy, the European Pillar of Social Rights and the European Semester.

Labour market statistics on businesses on the level and structure of labour costs have been collected since 19591, with a periodicity of 2 to 4 years based on specific legislation for each data collection, and covered different economic sectors (industry, wholesale and retail distribution, road transport, banking and insurance, services).

The evaluation conducted by the Commission has shown that the current legal framework of Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 and Regulations (EC) No 450/2003 and (EC) No 453/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council has significantly improved labour market statistics on businesses overall. Some limitations of the statistics that were recognised already at the time of adoption of the legal acts (missing parts of the economy) became more salient as EU policies developed, and their monitoring required more precise indicators.

The lack of a legal obligation to provide annual information on the gender pay gap has become more problematic. Another weakness of the current legal framework is that it does not capture significant actors of the EU economy, such as micro firms. In addition, there is room for improving the timeliness and frequency of labour market statistics on businesses data. Lastly, the legal architecture could be simplified by replacing the three framework regulations currently in force with one consolidated text to ensure full harmonisation and consistency across all labour market statistics on businesses data collections.

CONTENT: the proposed regulation lays down a new framework for European labour statistics on businesses . It integrates current statistics on the structure and distribution of earnings and labour costs, the labour cost index, job vacancies and the gender pay gap. It also specifies that Member States must provide statistics on 3 domains (earnings, labour costs, labour demand), 5 related topics and 20 detailed topics.

These statistics are supported by articles on the subject matter, definitions, data sources and methods (including specific enablers for the reuse of administrative data sources), data requirements, early estimates, statistical population and units, ad hoc data requirements, quality requirements and quality reporting, pilot and feasibility studies, and potential financial contributions.

The details of data requirements will be specified in implementing acts, but the proposed regulation makes it possible to amend the list of detailed topics and their periodicity, reference periods and data transmission deadlines by delegated acts.

The proposal also provides for the possibility to respond to upcoming data requirements with ad hoc data collections.

Lastly, the proposed regulation offers potential co-financing to further modernise statistical production systems and carry out pilot and feasibility studies as appropriate.