Average gross wages in the Czech Republic increased by 6.5% to CZK 20,211 last year. Taking into account inflation, wages increased last year by 3.9% in real terms. This is the most significant increase in the last three years. In the business sector, average salaries increased by 6.8% last year to CZK 20,333, in the non-business sector wages moved up by only 5.4% to CZK 19,784. Wage growth facilitated an acceleration in spending on household consumption, but at the same time it didn't threaten the Czech competitive advantage in terms of labor costs as labor productivity actually increased so as to produce a slight decrease in unit labor costs for the year.