CYPRUS: Wage indexation pushes earnings up 2.1%

Wage indexation (COLA) pushed up earnings in the second quarter despite soaring unemployment and contracting demand.
According to the preliminary estimates of the Statistical Service, the average monthly earnings of employees during the second quarter of 2012 rose by 2.1% compared with the year earlier to EUR 1,951, with males earning EUR 2,147 and females EUR 1,728.
The Statistical Service said that the increase reflects to a large extent the cost of living adjustment on gross earnings, which was 1.39% in July.
The increase in earnings was lower than in the second quarter of 2011, when it rose by 3.1%.
On a seasonally adjusted basis earnings rose by 0.8%.
The government has rejected demands by the troika (European Central Bank, European Commission and IMF) that is abolish indexing wages to inflation in order to cut the public-sector wage bill and improve competitiveness.