labour costs

Labor costs are generally the costs of the production factor labor and especially an economic indicator with which the costs of a worker are measured.

General

In business administration , labor costs are wage and salary costs ( direct labor costs ) as well as social costs based on statutory and voluntary benefits from the employer ( employer's contribution to social insurance and the expenses for continued payment of wages in the event of illness ), expenses for company pension schemes , vacation pay , allowances , Allowances and surcharges ( non-wage costs ). The direct labor costs include all costs that have a direct income character and flow directly to the employees as remuneration , i.e. wages and salaries, benefits in kind , allowances, continued payment of wages in the event of illness, vacation pay, allowances or supplements. Among the indirect labor costs include those expenses by the employer, which have no or only indirect income character like Social Security or company pension. In this sense, the labor costs correspond to the operational cost type personnel costs . Depending on the economic sector , labor costs can exceed production costs (for example in the textile industry ) or be relatively insignificant ( semiconductor production ).

Economics

As an economic key figure, the labor costs determined in this way are divided by the number of hours worked annually , so that the key figure for "labor costs per hour worked" results: ${\displaystyle A_{k}}$ ${\displaystyle A_{h}}$ ${\displaystyle Ah}$

${\displaystyle {\text{Ah}}={\frac {A_{k}}{A_{h}}}}$.

This key figure enables a comparison of the change in labor costs in the context of a time series analysis . An international comparison shows in which countries labor costs are lowest ( low-wage country ) and highest ( high-wage country ). Alfred Weber , according to (1909) the three influence locational factors transport costs , labor costs and agglomeration advantages the choice of location , the transport costs play a central role in the system of Weber. They are the most important factor in determining the optimal location.

Hourly labor costs in Germany

Hourly labor costs are the annual labor costs divided by the number of hours worked during the year.

year	Euro
1996	22.39
1997	22.77
1998	23.03
1999	23.46
2000	24.33
2001	24.92
2002	25.45
2003	26.05
2004	26.17
2005	26.43
2008	27.90
2012	30.50
2015	32.30
2016	32.80
2017	33.80
2018	34.60

International comparison

Labor costs per hour worked in 2007, 2017 and 2018:

country	2007	2017	2018
EU total	22.80	26.70	27.40
Denmark	35.00	42.80	43.50
Sweden	33.40	38.10	36.60
Belgium	33.10	39.10	39.70
Luxembourg	32.70	39.90	40.60
France	31.90	34.90	35.80
Netherlands	29.29	35.10	35.90
Germany	29.10	33.80	34.60
Austria	28.50	33.00	34.00
Finland	28.30	33.20	33.60
Great Britain	27.90	26.80	27.40
Ireland	25.50	31.20	32.10
Italy	24.50	27.70	28.20
Spain	18.30	21.20	21.40
Poland	6.70	9.50	10.10
Romania	3.90	6.20	6.90
Bulgaria	2.10	5.00	5.40

Typical European low-wage countries are Bulgaria, Romania and Poland. Lithuania (€ 9.00 / hour), Latvia (9.30) or Hungary (9.20) not included in the list must also be added. The further east a state is, the more it belongs to the low-wage countries. Typical high-wage countries worldwide (2015) are Switzerland (€ 58.13 / hour), followed by Norway (59.28), Belgium (43.20), Denmark (42.77), Sweden (41.14), Germany ( 38.99), France (37.47), Finland (36.82), Austria (36.18), Netherlands (34.99), USA (33.96), Luxembourg (31.27), Ireland (30 , 86), United Kingdom (30.03) or Canada (27.98).

In the European automotive industry , the German automotive industry led the way in 2013 with € 43.40 / hour, followed by Sweden (47.30), France (46.70), Italy (29.70), Spain (26.70) and England (24 , 50).

Due to the disproportionate increase in ancillary wage costs in the industrialized countries , labor costs will continue to rise even if the development of net income is moderate. This increase is z. B. by obsolescence and the updating of social entitlements such as health insurance, company pensions and the like. Ä. Driven.

In an international comparison of the location factor labor costs, Germany ranks 17th out of 21 OECD countries according to a study by ZEW on behalf of the Family Business Foundation. The Eastern European countries and Portugal have the lowest labor costs.

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literature

• Federal Statistical Office - data [1] and articles [2] on the subject of "labor costs"
• IHK North Westphalia - facts and figures (labor costs)
• Institute for Macroeconomics and Business Cycle Research, German Labor Costs in European Comparison (pdf; 287 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Business publishing house Dr. Th. Gabler, Gablers Wirtschafts Lexikon , Volume 1, 1984, Col. 256
2. ↑ Austrian Central Statistical Office , Statistische Nachrichten , 2014, p. 821
3. ↑ Alfred Weber, On the location of industries , first part: Pure theory of location , 1909, p. 16 ff.
4. ↑ Eurostat, press release 60/2018 of 9 April 2018, labor costs in the EU , p. 3; and Eurostat, press release 62/2019 of 11 April 2019, labor costs in the EU, p. 3
5. ↑ Eurostat, press release 62/2019 of April 11, 2019, labor costs in the EU , p. 3
6. ^ Institute of the German Economy , Christoph Schröder: Industrial Labor Costs in International Comparison , 3/2016, p. 44
7. ↑ Statista the statistics portal, hourly labor costs in the automotive industry in selected European countries in 2005 and 2013 (in euros) , 2019
8. ^ ZEW - Leibniz Center for European Economic Research, Mannheim: Country index for family businesses. Family Business Foundation, 2018, p. 24 , accessed on January 28, 2020 (German).