8 July 2016

2016- n° 178

The revised index of hourly labour cost - all employees (ICHTrev-TS); a cost index and an index of employer contributions Hourly labour cost index - 1st Quarter 2016

The ICHTrev-TS is primarily intended for users who need indicators of labour costs to upgrade their contracts. Therefore, this index cannot be subject to any revision once it has been published. It is a monthly index (base 100 in December 2008) that is published every quarter for all industries.

Since January 1^st, 2013, the tax credit for encouraging competitiveness and jobs (CICE) has been included in the computation of the ICHTrev-TS as a subsidy received by the employer. On January 1^st 2014, the rate of exoneration of the CICE increased from 4% to 6% of wages lower than 2.5 minimum wages. In overseas departments only, the exoneration rate rose to 7.5% on January 1^st 2015 then to 9% on January 1^st 2016. Since the ICHTrev-TS is an index smoothed over a four-quarter period, the effect of an increase in the CICE rate on the change in the index is spread over the whole year.

An index of employer contributions has also been published from April 2010 on (base 100 in December 2008). It differs from the ICHTrev-TS in two ways: the three monthly indices of a same quarter are identical, and there is no forecast for the mechanical and electrical industries as far as the first month of the next quarter is concerned. This index of employer contributions measures the change in the variable “1 + rate of employer contributions” where the rate of employer contributions is the percentage of employer social contributions and taxes minus subsidies based on wages and employment, relative to gross salary (see methodological note).

The CICE affects the index of employer contributions.