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IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
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INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS OF HOURLY COMPENSATION COSTS IN MANUFACTURING, 2010 [21 December 2011]

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ichcc.nr0.htm

or

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ichcc.pdf

[full-text, 10 pages]

and

Supplemental Files Table of Contents

http://www.bls.gov/web/ichcc.supp.toc.htm

Manufacturing hourly compensation costs in the United States in 2010 were

lower than in several northern and western European countries, Australia,

and Canada, but higher than in the United Kingdom and 19 countries in

southern and eastern Europe, Asia, and South America, the U.S. Bureau of

Labor Statistics reported today (see chart 1). U.S. hourly compensation

costs rose about 2 percent from the previous year to $34.74 (see table 2).

From 1997 to 2010, U.S. compensation cost competitiveness in manufacturing

improved relative to all but five countries covered: Brazil, Germany, Japan,

the Philippines, and Taiwan (see table 1).

Chart 1. Hourly compensation costs in manufacturing, U.S. dollars, 2010

PDF CONTAINS CHART AT THIS POINT.

Changes in a country’s compensation costs in U.S. dollars are roughly

equivalent to the change in compensation costs in a country’s national

currency plus the change in the value of the country’s currency relative

to the U.S. dollar. This relationship is illustrated in chart 2, where

the bars in the right panel for each country can be summed to equal the

bars in the left panel. In 2010, many European countries had modest

increases or declines in hourly compensation costs in national currency

combined with larger depreciations in national currency relative to the

U.S. dollar, resulting in declines in U.S. dollar-denominated hourly

compensation costs. In contrast, all countries outside Europe saw

increases in U.S. dollar hourly compensation costs much higher than in

the United States.

Chart 2. Annual percent change in hourly compensation costs in

         manufacturing and exchange rates, 2009-2010

PDF CONTAINS CHART AT THIS POINT.

Chart 3. Benefit components of hourly compensation costs as a percent

         of total compensation, 2010

PDF CONTAINS CHART AT THIS POINT.

AND MUCH MORE...including CHARTS & TABLES....

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This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.

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Stuart Basefsky                   
Director, IWS News Bureau                
Institute for Workplace Studies 
Cornell/ILR School                        
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor             
New York, NY 10016                        
                                   
Telephone: (607) 262-6041               
Fax: (607) 255-9641                       
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu                  
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