2009 International Comparisons of Hourly Compensation Costs in Manufacturing — 2011-03-08

Manufacturing hourly compensation costs in the United States in 2009 were lower than in 12 European countries and Australia, but higher than in 20 other countries covered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (see chart 1). U.S. hourly compensation costs rose about 4 percent from the previous year to $33.53. The 8 countries with the highest costs in Europe were 30-60 percent higher than the U.S. level, but costs in Canada and Japan were about 10 percent lower than the United States (see table 1). 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.