2023-04-26 13:45:28
Labor costs in Austria rose faster last year than in the European Union as a whole. Employers in the manufacturing and service sectors paid an average of EUR 39.00 for an hour worked in 2022, according to Eurostat data. This is EUR 2.00 or 5.4 percent more than in the previous year, while the EU-wide increase was 5.2 percent.
In terms of labor costs, Austria ranks eighth among the 27 EU member states. They are around 30 percent above the EU average of 30.50 euros. The most expensive work is in Luxembourg at 50.70 euros per hour. Denmark (EUR 46.80), Belgium (EUR 43.50), France (EUR 40.80), the Netherlands (EUR 40.50), Sweden (EUR 40.10) and Germany (EUR 39.50) are also in the same range before Austria. At the bottom of the tables is Bulgaria with 8.20 euros.
For the General Secretary of the Federation of Industry, Christoph Neumayer, the above-average labor cost burden in Austria is “alarming”. “As a result of this development, we run the risk of companies migrating to neighboring EU countries.” The industry representatives are therefore in favor of a reduction in non-wage labor costs and positive incentives to get more people into work.
The Neos are also calling for a reduction in taxes on work. “Although employees in Austria have much less net income than in other European countries and although employers pay high ancillary wage costs that are harmful to competition, what they get for their money is getting less and worse instead of better,” says economic and social spokesman Gerald Loacker.
“The labor costs per hour worked have developed very differently in the European Union over the past ten years,” as the German Federal Statistical Office announced on Wednesday. Bulgaria (+141.2 percent), Romania (+131.7 percent), Lithuania (+122.0 percent) and Latvia (+103.3 percent) recorded the highest percentage increases from 2012 to 2022 – albeit from a low level . The absolute hourly labor costs increased the most in Luxembourg, at EUR 15.40.
The smallest increases were observed in Sweden with 2.80 euros or 7.5 percent and in Italy with 1.70 euros or 6.1 percent. In a ten-year comparison, Greece is the only country to report lower average labor costs than ten years previously (-7.6 percent or -1.20 euros). In this comparison, with an increase of 31.3 percent or EUR 9.30, Austria was above the EU average of plus 25.0 percent or EUR 6.10.
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