In 2011 labour costs for manufacturing industry in western Germany amounted to € 37.57 per hour. That put western Germany in sixth place in the Labour Cost Ranking maintained by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW). In western Germany industrial labour costs are over a quarter higher than the average for established industrialised countries. The cost disadvantage for Germany as a whole was 6 percent lower since, at € 22.43 per hour, labour costs in eastern Germany were 40 percent below those in the west. On the one hand, cost discipline in Germany has increased considerably in the new millennium. With an annual average rise of just over 2 percent in the period 2000 – 2011, German manufacturing industry had the lowest figure for any country in the European Union. On the other hand, cost expansion in 2011 was again considerably above average.
Industrial Labour Costs: An International Comparison
German Economic Institute (IW)
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