Wage diversity in the euro area: An overview of labour cost differentials across industries

"This Occasional Paper takes a first step towards providing a descriptive overview of the magnitude of inter-industry wage differentials in the euro area as a whole (i.e. the average level of compensation per employee in each industry relative to that total economy). It also studies how the euro area wage structure compares with that of the United States and the United Kingdom. It discusses some possible determinants of inter-industry wage differentials in the euro area and their likely implications from a policy perspective. It also presents some basic stylised facts on how the euro area wage structure has evolved over the 1980s and the 1990s. One of our key findings is that there are undoubtedly substantial differences in relative wage levels between agriculture, manufacturing, utilities, construction and services. In particular, wage dispersion turns out to be larger in manufacturing than in services, and wage levels in services as a whole appear to be about 16% lower than in manufacturing." Die Untersuchung enthält quantitative Daten. Forschungsmethode: empirisch-quantitativ; empirisch; Querschnitt; Längsschnitt. Die Untersuchung bezieht sich auf den Zeitraum 1970 bis 2001. (author's abstract, IAB-Doku).