Tabu Methodology Overview

General

Over 22,000 salaries were included in the final comparison.

Default filters include:
- the individual's position based on the second survey question,
- the individual's seniority, if applicable,
- the individual’s country of salary,
- the individual’s contract type,
- salary entered or updated within the last 18 months.

Net and Gross

Over 60% of employees in Croatia do not understand gross salary, often including monthly allowances like transportation, food, and performance bonuses in their "net" salary. This is why TABU initially allowed only "net" entries, but from March 21, 2023, gross salary entries are also possible. If you want to understand gross salary better, check out our webinar with Toni Milun (in Croatian).

For those who did not enter their gross salary, an approximate gross 1 was calculated based on the net salary entered, depending on the entry date.

Croatia

For entries from 2022 and 2023, the following formula is applied:

((((salary - 132) - 763) * (1 / (1 - (case when salary - 132 >= 3981 then 0.3 else 0.2 end * (tax / 100) + case when salary - 132 >= 3981 then 0.3 else 0.2 end)))) + 763) * 1.25

For entries from 2024, the following formula is applied:

((((salary - 132) - 840) * (1 / (1 - case when salary - 132 >= 4200 then higher_rate else lower_rate end))) + 840) * 1.25

For entries from 2025 onwards, the following formula is applied:

((((salary - 132) - 900) * (1 / (1 - case when salary - 132 >= 5000 then higher_rate else lower_rate end))) + 900) * 1.25

Explanation:
- 132 is the rounded tax-free allowance (average),
- 763, 840, and 900 are the average personal deductions (for 1 child, without dependents or disabilities),
- 0.2 and 0.3 = 20% or 30% income tax,
- 1.25 is the conversion rate for pension contributions,
- surtax and lower/higher rates are taken from the place entered by the user,
- if surtax or lower/higher rates are unknown, the system uses Zagreb’s rates.

Serbia

The formula used to convert net salaries to gross in Serbia is as follows:

(salary - 21.35) / 0.701

Explanation:    
- 21.35 is 2500 RSD in EUR
- 0.701 is the number that encompasses all taxes for the current year.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

The formula used to convert net salaries to gross in Bosnia and Herzegovina is as follows:

((salary - 153) + 22.95) / 0.58

Explanation:    
- 153 is the deduction from the entered salary for allowances, i.e., transportation and meals. It assumes €200 for meals and €100 for transportation, converted to euros.
- 22.95 is the average personal deduction considered for one child, in euros.
- 0.58 is the conversion rate for 10% income tax and 32% contributions, averaged between FBiH and RS.

​OpenAI personalized advice

To generate personalized salary increase advice, the OpenAI API was used. A Data Protection Agreement with OpenAI ensures GDPR compliance. Anonymized data was sent to the API to generate advice - these data do not include unique identifiers.

For each user with updated salary data, advice was individually requested based on their unique identifier.

Advice is updated periodically, especially after a new update. OpenAI does not use TABU data for any other purpose, such as improving its LLM.

OpenAI prompt used for generating advice:‍

You have access to market salary data.
The salaries listed are monthly net or gross salaries: "salary" field is monthly net salary with monthly allowances, "salary_bruto" field is monthly gross salary.
You will be provided with a JSON description of a single user marked with a unique_id - this user is referred to as Advisee.
Compare the Advisee with the market based on the provided data. Recognize the users in the market salary data that have a higher salary than the Advisee and note the differences in data between the Advisee and the users in the market salary data.
You can write and execute Python code by enclosing it in triple backticks, e.g. ```code goes here```. Use this to perform calculations.
Your task is to generate a single-sentence advice on increasing their salary. The advice must be written in English.
Compare the Advisee to others on the same position, seniority, company_salary and contract_type.
The advice must be realistic, e.g. advise another company type or size, a change of contract type, if they should work in an IT company or not, attaining higher education.
The advice can't be that the Advisee should change their seniority or position. The advice must be addressed to the user, as it will be sent directly to them.
For developments positions, you can advisee the change of technology, if other technologies on the same positions and seniority are paid significantly more.
Pay attention to seniorities and years of experience.
If the Advisee is a female, check to see if her male colleagues of the same seniority are being paid more than her. If that's the case, advise her to talk about gender pay gap in her company.
Company type “Primarno vlastiti proizvod” means that’s a product company, while "Djelomično agencija i vlastiti proizvod” means it’s a company that’s partially an agency, and partially a product company.