In der internationalen Arbeitskostenhierarchie liegt Österreich nach Norwegen, Deutschland und der Schweiz, den anderen skandinavischen
Ländern, Japan, den USA und den Niederlanden an 11. Stelle. 2001 betrugen die Kosten der Arbeitsstunde in der Sachgütererzeugung
Österreichs 20,31 €, um 4% mehr als im EU-Durchschnitt. Nach einer deutlichen Verschlechterung in der ersten Hälfte der neunziger
Jahre verbesserte sich die relative Lohnstückkostenposition seit Mitte der neunziger Jahre durch unterdurchschnittlichen Lohnauftrieb,
anhaltend hohe Produktivitätszuwächse und stabilere Währungsrelationen um rund 15%. Zuletzt stiegen 2001 die Lohnstückkosten
der Sachgütererzeugung Österreichs um gut 2%, blieben aber in Relation zu den Handelspartnern in einheitlicher Währung unverändert.
Keywords:Lohnstückkostenposition; Österreich; Internationaler Vergleich; Internationale Lohnstückkostenposition 2001 unverändert; Austria's
International Ranking of Unit Labour Costs Remained Unchanged in 2001
Forschungsbereich:Arbeitsmarktökonomie, Einkommen und soziale Sicherheit
Sprache:Deutsch
Austria's International Ranking of Unit Labour Costs Remained Unchanged in 2001
Austria currently takes 11th place in an international ranking of unit labour costs. Labour is most expensive in Norway, Germany
and Switzerland, where one hour of manufacturing labour costs almost a quarter more than in Austria. In Austrian manufacturing,
one hour of work cost € 20.31 in 2001, which was about 4 percent higher than the EU average. The amount was composed of wages
costing € 10.65 and non-wage labour costs of € 9.66. With this, non-wage labour costs made up 90.7 percent. In spite of a
cut in the contribution by employers to the health insurance scheme for blue-colour workers, it was 0.8 percentage points
higher than in 2000, since severance payments, after declining substantially in 2000, were once again on the rise. Non-wage
labour costs in Austria are high because a large portion of the annual income is in the form of tax-privileged bonus payments
(13th and 14th monthly salaries). If these bonus payments were counted as fixed parts of the wage or salary, non-wage labour
costs would make up 63.2 percent for manufacturing. Austria's ranking in terms of unit labour costs changed several times
over the course of the 1990s. In the first half of the decade, Austrian industries lost ground due to considerable wage inflation
and the schilling's upward revaluation due to the crisis in the European monetary system. After the mid-1990s, a better currency
situation and lower wage inflation, with sustained high rates of productivity growth, markedly improved price competition:
relative unit labour costs have since been declining on a uniform currency base against the average of trade partners, by
well over 2.5 percent p.a. Altogether, Austrian manufacturing has been able to improve its unit wage costs position by a good
10 percent since the early 1990s. In 2001, the cost of an hour of work rose by 3.5 percent; with productivity growth declining
to +1.3 percent (as against +7.3 percent in 2000), unit wage costs in Austrian manufacturing went up by 2.1 percent. With
unit wage costs rising similarly in competing countries, Austria's relative ranking remained unchanged over the previous year.