Report · One-off

Payroll in Latvian Company Accounts

Only 5.4% of Latvian limited companies with staff show what they spend on them in the accounts they file, because the rest use a profit and loss format with no line for it. Among the 4,377 that did for 2025, the median labour cost was EUR 771 a month per employee, about EUR 624 before the employer’s social contribution. That is not a salary: 91.1% of these companies have fewer than ten staff, and part-time staff count as whole employees. At companies with 50 or more staff it comes to EUR 1,922 before the contribution, close to Eurostat’s full-time average for Latvia of EUR 1,855.

Why Do Most Latvian Company Accounts Not Show Staff Costs?

Because only one of the two profit and loss formats in the Annual Accounts Law, the one that classifies costs by nature, has a line for personnel costs, and the notes that detail them under the other format are not open data. Every year since 2014, between 5.0% and 6.7% of accounts from companies with staff have carried the line.

What Does Labour Cost per Employee Include in Latvia?

Pay, pensions paid by the company, the employer’s 23.59% state social insurance contribution, and other social security costs, as the law defines personnel costs. It is a cost per head rather than per full-time job, because a part-time employee counts as one, so it sits below a full-time salary.

Because the employer’s contribution is already inside the figure, the arithmetic in the cost of hiring guide multiplies a gross salary by 1.2359 to reach the employer’s cost. Here it runs the other way: dividing by 1.2359 gives an approximate gross figure, and multiplying would count the contribution twice. What the labour market pays for a given role, from the statistics bureau rather than from accounts, is in the Riga tech salaries guide.

The headcount is the other half. The law defines the average number of employees as the number on the payroll on the last day of each month, averaged over the year. A part-time employee counts as one, so the cost per employee sits below a full-time salary wherever part-time work is common.

What Is the Average Labour Cost per Employee in Latvia?

It rises steeply with company size. Pooling 2023 to 2025, the median monthly labour cost per employee is EUR 508 at companies with one employee, EUR 678 at two to nine, EUR 1,214 at ten to 49 and EUR 2,376 at 50 or more. For 2025 alone the median across all of them is EUR 771.

91.1% of the accounts that show a labour cost for 2025 come from companies with fewer than ten staff. At that size the gross equivalent, EUR 1,922, is within 4% of Eurostat’s average full-time salary for Latvia in 2024, EUR 1,855. That agreement is the best evidence that these figures mean something where the headcount is mostly full-time.

Has Labour Cost per Employee Risen Faster Than Prices in Latvia?

Yes. For the 3,233 companies that showed a labour cost in both 2022 and 2025, the median change in cost per employee was 34.4%. Consumer prices rose 14.7% over the same years, so in real terms that is about 17.2%.

The change is much the same for companies with one employee (34.8%), two to nine (36.2%) and ten to 49 (32.9%).

Following the same companies matters. The group that files this way changes every year, and the median of all of them, EUR 524 in 2022 and EUR 771 in 2025, mixes a change in pay with a change in who reports it.

Where in Latvia Is Labour Cost per Employee Highest?

Mārupes nov., at EUR 855 a month. Across the 20 municipalities with at least 200 such accounts in 2023 to 2025, the median runs from EUR 562 in Dienvidkurzemes nov. to EUR 855 in Mārupes nov., with Rīga at EUR 686. Company size moves the figure more than place does, so read this as a description, not a ranking of employers.

Are Latvian Companies That Show Labour Costs Typical?

As far as the accounts can show. They are picked out by accounting format rather than sampled, but within each size band their median turnover per employee is of the same order as that of other companies, so nothing suggests a very different kind of company chooses the format, though that cannot be proved.

Median turnover per employee in 2025 was EUR 22,291 against EUR 18,730 at one employee, EUR 28,722 against EUR 34,585 at two to nine staff, EUR 49,689 against EUR 58,452 at ten to 49 staff. At 50 or more staff too few accounts show a labour cost to compare.

What Can Latvian Payroll Data Not Tell You?

Pay by job or sector, because accounts carry no occupation and Latvia publishes no industry classification per company; full-time pay, since the headcount includes part-time staff; figures for the companies on this map, too few of which show a labour cost; and what employers advertise, which is a separate question.

• Pay by job or sector. The accounts carry no occupation, and Latvia publishes no industry classification for each company, as the methodology page explains, so this cannot say what engineers or any other role are paid.
• The companies on this map. Only 10 of the 598 startups and scaleups on the map filed 2025 accounts that show a labour cost, far under the 200 a median needs.
• Full-time pay. The headcount includes part-time staff, and the accounts record no hours.
• What employers advertise. Advertised pay is a different question, measured from job adverts, and belongs to the pay transparency benchmark listed on the reports page.
• Anything about a company. Only medians and counts over at least 200 accounts are published.

Method

• Accounts. Company annual reports of SIA and AS in euros, the latest filing for each company and year. Group accounts and associations are left out, and amounts reported in thousands are scaled.
• Labour cost per employee. Personnel costs divided by the average number of employees and by twelve, for accounts with at least one employee and a positive personnel cost.
• Gross equivalent. Divided by 1.2359, one plus the employer’s contribution. Approximate, because personnel costs also include company pensions and other social costs.
• Change over time. The same companies in both years, median of each company’s change, against Eurostat’s annual average consumer price index.
• Withheld figures. No median or quartile is published over fewer than 200 accounts.

Definitions are frozen at version 4. The full set is on the methodology page.

Sources

• Uzņēmumu reģistrs, annual report financial data, with its field definitions. Extract of 7 September 2026.
• Annual Accounts and Consolidated Annual Accounts Law, for the two profit and loss formats, the content of personnel costs and the average number of employees.
• Law on State Social Insurance, for the employer’s contribution rate.
• Eurostat, harmonised consumer prices (prc_hicp_aind), and average full-time adjusted salary per employee (nama_10_fte).