Table 2. Hourly compensation costs in U.S. dollars

Table 2. Hourly compensation costs in U.S. dollars for production workers
in manufacturing, 29 countries or areas and selected economic groups,
selected years, 1975-97
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Country or area              1975   1980   1985   1990   1993   1994   1995   1996   1997
_________________________________________________________________________________________

United States ..........    $6.36  $9.87 $13.01 $14.91 $16.51 $16.87 $17.19 $17.70 $18.24


Canada .................     5.96   8.67  10.94  15.84  16.43  15.85  16.04  16.66  16.55

Mexico .................     1.47   2.21   1.59   1.58   2.40   2.47   1.51   1.54   1.75


Australia ..............     5.62   8.47   8.20  13.07  12.49  14.02  15.05  16.52  16.00

Hong Kong SAR 1 ........      .76   1.51   1.73   3.20   4.29   4.61   4.82   5.14   5.42

Israel .................     2.25   3.79   4.06   8.55   8.82   9.19  10.54  10.99  12.05

Japan ..................     3.00   5.52   6.34  12.80  19.21  21.35  23.82  20.91  19.37


Korea ..................      .32    .96   1.23   3.71   5.64   6.40   7.29   8.09   7.22

New Zealand ............     3.21   5.33   4.47   8.33   8.01   8.93  10.11  11.03  11.02

Singapore ..............      .84   1.49   2.47   3.78   5.25   6.29   7.33   8.32   8.24

Sri Lanka ..............      .28    .22    .28    .35    .42    .45    .48    .48      -

Taiwan .................      .40   1.00   1.50   3.93   5.23   5.55   5.92   5.93   5.89


Austria ................     4.51   8.88   7.58  17.75  20.16  21.51  25.21  24.66  21.92

Belgium ................     6.41  13.11   8.97  19.17  21.44  23.07  26.65  25.89  22.82

Denmark ................     6.28  10.83   8.13  18.04  19.11  20.30  24.07  24.11  22.02

Finland ................     4.61   8.24   8.16  21.03  16.63  19.06  24.14  23.56  21.44


France .................     4.52   8.94   7.52  15.49  16.79  17.63  20.01  19.92  17.97

Germany 2 ..............     6.31  12.25   9.53  21.88  25.32  27.03  32.22  31.79  28.28

Greece .................     1.69   3.73   3.66   6.76   7.23   7.73   9.17   9.59      -

Ireland ................     3.03   5.95   5.92  11.66  11.89  12.39  13.57  13.85  13.57


Italy ..................     4.67   8.15   7.63  17.45  15.80  15.89  16.21  17.73  16.74

Luxembourg .............     6.50  12.03   7.81  16.74  18.74  20.33  23.35  22.55      -

Netherlands ............     6.58  12.06   8.75  18.06  20.08  20.80  24.02  23.08  20.61

Norway .................     6.77  11.59  10.37  21.47  20.21  20.97  24.38  25.05  23.72


Portugal ...............     1.58   2.06   1.53   3.77   4.50   4.60   5.37   5.58   5.29

Spain ..................     2.53   5.89   4.66  11.38  11.62  11.54  12.88  13.51  12.16

Sweden .................     7.18  12.51   9.66  20.93  17.59  18.62  21.44  24.37  22.24

Switzerland ............     6.09  11.09   9.66  20.86  22.63  24.91  29.30  28.34  24.19

United Kingdom .........     3.37   7.56   6.27  12.70  12.41  12.80  13.67  14.13  15.47


Trade-weighted measures 3

All 28 foreign economies ..  3.83   6.60   6.74  12.33  14.32  15.01  16.38  16.09  15.25

OECD 4 ....................  4.25   7.30   7.39  13.46  15.55  16.27  17.75  17.37  16.40

  less Mexico, Korea 5 ....  4.82   8.30   8.48  15.51  17.78  18.57  20.39  19.90  18.77

Europe ....................  5.10   9.90   7.96  17.31  18.36  19.33  22.10  22.19  20.46

European Union ............  5.03   9.83   7.85  17.09  18.14  19.05  21.75  21.87  20.24

Asian NIEs ................   .52   1.17   1.65   3.72   5.19   5.78   6.40   6.87   6.65

_________________________________________________________________________________________



Dash means data not available.

1  Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China.
2  Former West Germany. 
3  For description of trade-weighted measures and economic groups, see the Technical 
   Notes preceding these tables.
4  Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
5  Mexico joined the OECD in 1994, and Korea joined in 1996.

Source:  U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 1998.

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