In 2021, some 144,000 registered companies in Croatia, "not including financial institutions," had a total of close to 965,000 employees, and their "staff costs" totaled 113.4 billion (€15.1 billion) or 8.8 percent up from 2020, state agency Hina reported on Friday, citing a publicly available report released by the state's financial agency Fina.

Net salaries and wages accounted for the bulk of staffing cost, as they totaled 73.5 billion kuna (€9.8 billion) or 65 percent.

The cost of taxes and social contributions paid by employees from their gross salaries amounted added up to 25.4 billion kuna (€3.4 billion) or 22.4 percent, while contributions on salaries paid by companies totaled another 14.4 billion kuna (€1.9 billion) or 12.7 percent.

The cost of staff in the businesses’ overall expenses in 2021 was reportedly 13.6 percent. The average monthly net salary paid by companies was 6,350 kuna (€844), a nominal increase of 6.1 percent from 2020. In 2021, the cost of reimbursements, grants, and other benefits paid to employees was 16.6 billion kuna (€2.2 billion).

(€1 = 7.52 kuna)