2010 International Comparisons of Hourly Compensation Costs in Manufacturing — 2011-12-21

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). 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.