In der internationalen Arbeitskostenhierarchie liegt Österreich nach Deutschland, den skandinavischen Ländern, der Schweiz,
den Niederlanden und Japan an 10. Stelle. 1999 betrugen die Kosten der Arbeiterstunde in der Sachgütererzeugung Österreichs
265,2 S; die deutsche Sachgütererzeugung zahlte um 25% mehr. Nach einer merklichen Verschlechterung in der ersten Hälfte der
neunziger Jahre hat sich die relative Lohnstückkostenposition der österreichischen Sachgütererzeugung seit Mitte der neunziger
Jahre durch niedrigeren Lohnauftrieb, anhaltend hohe Produktivitätssteigerung und stabilere Währungsrelationen um fast 5%
verbessert; allein 1999 sanken die relativen Lohnstückkosten in einheitlicher Währung um 1,4%.
Keywords:Verbesserung der relativen Lohnstückkostenposition durch Euro-Kursrückgang; Declining Euro Improves Austrian Ranking in Relative
Unit Labour Cost
Forschungsbereich:Arbeitsmarktökonomie, Einkommen und soziale Sicherheit
Sprache:Deutsch
Declining Euro Improves Austrian Ranking in Relative Unit Labour Cost
In an international ranking of labour costs, Austria places tenth after Germany, the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland,
the Netherlands and Japan. Labour is most expensive in Germany: At ATS 331 manufacturers in Germany pay 25 percent more per
working hour than those in Austria, where in 1999 a worker's hour cost ATS 265.20 or 4¾ percent more than the EU average.
The rate of non-wage labour costs in manufacturing was 91.4 percent in 1999, or 0.8 percentage points higher than in 1998,
due to a rise in severance payments and failure periods. The position of Austrian industries in an international unit labour
cost ranking fluctuated throughout the 1990s. In the first half of the decade, it deteriorated by almost 3 percent due to
higher wage inflation than in the competing countries and the Schilling's gain in value in consequence of the crisis of the
European monetary system. In the second half, relative unit labour cost fell by 4.5 percent against the average of trading
partners, due to lower wage inflation, continuing productivity growth and better currency ratios in the single currency. In
1999, unit labour cost in Austrian manufacturing decreased by 0.5 percent. Its international ranking, compared to the average
of trading partners, improved by 1.4 percent, thanks to the strong recovery of the yen and dollar currencies.