Brown: U.S. Cheap Labor to Germans
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on December 29th, 2011 5:47 am by HL
Brown: U.S. Cheap Labor to Germans
Kevin C. Brown: In 2010, over 5.5 million cars were produced in Germany, twice the 2.7 million built in the United States. Average compensation (a figure including wages and employer-paid benefits) for autoworkers in Germany was 48.97 Euros per hour ($67.14 US), while compensation for auto work in the United States averaged $33.77 per hour, or about half as much as in Germany, all according to 2007 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For Germany-based auto producers, the U.S. is a low-wage country. Despite German companies’ relatively high labor costs in their home markets, these firms are quite profitable.