Press release No.179 / 2009-05-13

2008: Earnings in Germany and labour costs in an EU comparison

WIESBADEN – As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), a full-time employee in industry and services in Germany earned a gross EUR 41,509 on average in 2008. That was 2.8% more than in 2007. In the new Länder, the increase in earnings (+3.0% to EUR 30,151) was slightly larger than in the former territory of the Federal Republic (+2.8% to EUR 43,310). Employees in eastern Germany thus reached 70% of the earnings level in western Germany.

The above and other information on earnings and labour costs in 2008 have been presented by Roderich Egeler, President of the Federal Statistical Office, at a press conference in Berlin today.

The increase in earnings in 2008 was by 0.2 percentage points larger than the increase in consumer prices (+2.6%). However, not all groups of employees benefited equally. In manufacturing (+2.3%), in health and social work (+2.4%) and particularly in hotels and restaurants (+1.7%) real losses were recorded. In the other economic branches, the trend of earnings was higher than that of prices. The largest increases in earnings in 2008 were recorded for financial intermediation (+4.6%) and for mining (+4.4%).

President Roderich Egeler pointed out that the labour costs rose moderately in 2008. When measured in national currencies, in the private sector, Germany had the second lowest labour cost growth (+2.5% on the previous year) of all European Union member states, following Malta (+1.8%). Germany thus continuedin 2008 the trend that it has always been among the EU states with the lowest labour cost growth rates since 2001. France (+2.6%), Italy(+4.4%) and Spain(+5.0%) had higher rates of increase in 2008 and Latviahad the highest (+22.9%) all over the EU. In the United Kingdom and in Sweden, in part massive devaluations of the national currencies against the euro led to decreasing labour costs when measured on a euro basis.

Private-sector employers in Germany paid an average EUR 29.80 for one hour worked in 2008. In a European comparison, the German labour cost level ranked seventh together with Austria, following Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, Sweden, France and the Netherlands. Denmark (EUR 36.50) had the highest labour costs per hour worked and Bulgaria (EUR 2.50) the lowest.

In manufacturing, which faces particularly hard international competition, one hour cost an average EUR 33.90 in Germany in 2008. Germany thus ranked fourth in the European Union, following Belgium, Denmark and Sweden.

President Egeler also addressed the issue of non-wage costs as a major component of labour costs. Employers in Germany in 2008 paid non-wage costs of EUR 32 per EUR 100 of gross earnings. Germany thus was below the European average of EUR 36 and was among the middle-ranking countries (15th) in the European Union. In France and Sweden, non-wage costs of EUR 50 and EUR 48, respectively, were additionally paid per EUR 100 of wage, in Malta the figure was just EUR 9.

The main element of non-wage costs is employers’ social contributions, that is especially the statutory contributions of employers for social insurance and expenditure on employee pension schemes. A study of the relation between non-wage costs and gross wages and salaries allows comparing non-wage costs without having to pay attention to the wage levels in the various member states. The non-wage costs shown here must not be confused with the social insurance contributions, which comprise both employers’ and employees’ contributions to statutory social insurance.

Other official EU statistics are available through the EDS “European Data Service”.

Detailed results on the above topics as well as on agreed earnings and low-income earners are contained in the documents for the press conference on “earnings and labour costs in 2008”.

Average gross annual earnings in 2008
Economic branch	Germany		Former territory of the Federal Republic		New Länder
	Gross annual earnings of full-time employees ¹⁾	Change on the previous year	Gross annual earnings of full-time employees ¹⁾	Change on the previous year	Gross annual earnings of full-time employees ¹⁾	Change on the previous year
	EUR	%	EUR	%	EUR	%
¹⁾ Excluding public officials and apprentices. ²⁾ Excluding public administration and defence; compulsory social security. ³⁾ Real estate, renting and business activities.
Industry and services ²⁾	41,509	2.8	43,310	2.8	30,151	3.0
Industry	43,027	2.5	45,122	2.6	29,642	2.6
Mining and quarrying	43,640	4.4	45,020	4.8	37,089	2.6
Manufacturing	44,092	2.3	46,028	2.4	29,593	2.0
Electricity, gas and water supply	55,026	3.2	57,140	2.8	44,582	5.5
Construction	33,390	3.2	35,449	3.0	26,528	3.5
Services ²⁾	40,214	3.1	41,758	3.0	30,577	3.3
Wholesale and retail trade	38,256	2.7	39,595	2.5	27,153	3.1
Hotels and restaurants	23,833	1.7	24,874	1.9	18,349	1.6
Transport, storage and communication	36,098	2.9	37,568	2.9	28,561	2.0
Financial intermediation	58,791	4.6	59,951	4.6	44,293	5.4
Business services ³⁾	42,357	3.5	44,509	3.6	27,715	3.6
Education	39,676	2.7	39,204	2.4	40,787	3.5
Health and social work	38,482	2.4	39,114	2.1	35,038	3.8
Other community, social and personal service activities	39,112	3.6	41,136	3.6	28,803	2.6

Labour costs per hour worked ¹⁾ in 2008 in EUR
European Union member states (in descending order by level of labour costs in the private sector)	Private sector		Manufacturing
	Level	Change on 2007 ²⁾	Level	Change on 2007 ²⁾	Rank
	EUR	%	EUR	%	Rank
¹⁾ Apprentices are included for labour costs, but not for hours worked. ²⁾ Calendar-adjusted. ³⁾ Value refers to 2007. ⁴⁾ Values are provisional. … Data will be available later. X Value blocked for logical reasons. Source: Calculations by Destatis based on Eurostat, online database.
European Union (EU 27)	23.10	1.1	22.90	2.5	X
Euro area	26.80	3.4	28.40	3.8	X
Denmark	36.50	3.8	34.80	3.9	2
Luxembourg	34.00	3.5	31.60	2.5	7
Belgium ³⁾	33.10	…	35.80	…	1
Sweden	32.90	–1.3	34.70	0.3	3
France	32.70	2.6	33.40	3.0	5
Netherlands	30.50	3.8	31.60	3.8	8
Germany	29.80	2.5	33.90	2.7	4
Austria	29.80	3.0	31.90	5.0	6
Finland	29.50	5.4	31.30	5.0	9
Ireland	27.60	3.0	27.80	2.9	10
Italy	25.50	4.4	25.70	5.8	11
United Kingdom	25.20	–10.0	24.90	–9.5	12
Greece	19.70	13.6	18.50	16.6	14
Spain	19.20	5.0	20.70	5.4	13
Cyprus	15.40	6.4	13.00	6.2	15
Slovenia	13.80	9.6	12.60	10.8	16
Portugal	11.60	4.3	9.50	2.6	18
Malta ⁴⁾	9.90	1.8	9.80	2.0	17
Czech Republic	9.70	20.1	8.80	19.4	19
Hungary	8.30	7.9	7.50	7.0	20
Poland	8.00	19.4	7.00	18.9	23
Estonia	7.90	13.8	7.30	13.1	21
Slovakia	7.30	14.3	7.20	14.5	22
Lithuania	6.10	17.2	5.60	17.9	24
Latvia	5.90	22.9	5.20	21.4	25
Romania	4.20	10.0	3.50	10.9	26
Bulgaria	2.50	19.4	2.20	20.5	27

Non-wage costs in relation to gross earnings
in the private sector in 2008
European Union member states	EUR … of non-wage costs were paid per EUR 100 of gross earnings in 2008
European Union member states	EUR
¹⁾ Value refers to 2007. ²⁾ Value is provisional. Source: Calculations by Destatis based on Eurostat, online database.
European Union (EU 27)	36
France	50
Sweden	48
Italy	46
Belgium	46 ¹⁾
Hungary	42
Lithuania	41
Austria	39
Czech Republic	38
Spain	37
Estonia	37
Greece	36
Slovakia	35
Romania	34
Netherlands	32
Germany	32
Portugal	30
United Kingdom	28
Latvia	28
Finland	28
Poland	25
Bulgaria	25
Denmark	20
Slovenia	20
Luxembourg	19
Cyprus	18
Ireland	17
Malta	9 ²⁾
European Union (EU 27)	36

For further information please call:
Roland Günther,
tel: (+49-611) 75-3858, arbeitskosten@destatis.de

For more details please refer to the German version.

Contact:
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