Dr Wiesława Gierańczyk (Urząd Statystyczny w Bydgoszczy)

Wiesława Gierańczyk (PhD) has been associated with the Statistical Office in Bydgoszcz for 15 years, where she continues the scientific and research activity she began as a student at the Faculty of Biology and Earth Sciences of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. She obtained her PhD in Earth Sciences in 1999. Her academic output comprises more than 100 scientific publications.

Currently, Wiesława Gierańczyk focuses her professional efforts on developing the Office’s specialisation in nationwide tasks concerning labour market, wages, and labour cost statistics. Over the last two years, under her leadership, the use of administrative data in labour and wage statistics has been significantly expanded. This has resulted in an increase in the scope and frequency of data published on the current labour market situation, without burdening business entities and ultimately reducing their reporting obligations. Owing to the implementation of administrative data, information on employment and wages is now published on a monthly basis and made available in new breakdowns, including by gender, size of enterprise (including small entities), place of residence, age, registered office, and municipality. The latest achievement is the publication—also on a monthly basis—of data on median wages and average monthly wages in the national economy in the breakdowns listed above. This has been hailed as a “data revolution”. In line with the labour market research agenda, the Statistical Office in Bydgoszcz, under Dr Gierańczyk’s direction, is conducting experimental work on foreign nationals in the labour market and individuals working under civil law contracts.

Wiesława Gierańczyk participates in international research projects, including serving as the principal investigator of a Eurostat grant on labour market research through enterprises. She has worked and continues to work in several working groups at the interministerial level (including as a member of the Working Group on Skills Development for the Labour Market established by the Ministry of Education and Science, and the team responsible for implementing Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 on strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for men and women, established by the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy), at the ministerial level (in the area of analytical work in official statistics), and at the regional level (as a member of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Innovation Council to the Marshal of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and the team responsible for updating the Regional Innovation Strategy). She is also an active trainer within the public statistics system in the field of descriptive statistics and data visualisation.

Speech Title: What Do We Know About Wages in Poland – Who Earns How Much and Where? Directions for the Development of Public Statistics Research

One of the most complex, and at the same time sensitive and media-relevant aspects of the labour market is remuneration. This may be due to the perception of wages as the most effective incentive to work. To address the growing demand for information in this area, since January 2024 the Statistics Poland (GUS) has introduced the publication of new wage data, providing a unique and regularly updated picture of wage differentiation in the national economy. Alongside the well-known average monthly wage, the data now include the median and decile distribution of wages broken down by gender. The information is published monthly, with an approximately five-month lag, allowing for near-real-time monitoring of wage trends. The data are presented according to both individual characteristics (gender, age, place of residence) and enterprise characteristics (type of activity, size, and registered office). A key value of these data lies in the fact that they result from full population coverage, encompassing all employees and all employment relationships regardless of enterprise size, without imposing reporting obligations.

The expanded scope of wage data enables the analysis of remuneration using both average and median values with unprecedented detail. The study is entirely based on administrative data sources. The utilisation of administrative data in statistical research aligns not only with global trends in modern statistics but also forms the foundation for a more responsive and precise description of socio-economic phenomena. These statistics have become a dynamic tool for monitoring changes and informing decision-making processes in almost real time.

The aim of this presentation is to demonstrate how modern tools of official statistics—based on administrative data—are revolutionising wage analysis and enabling a more dynamic and detailed examination of the labour market.