Labour Costs Differ Widely in Manufacturing

Austria's manufacturing sector exhibits large wage differentials compared to other countries. If fringe benefits are also considered, pay inequality is even higher. Pay in high-wage as well as in low-wage industries deviates more markedly from the average in manufacturing than in other industrialized European cooutries while wage costs in most manufacturing branches vary by no more than 10 percent from the average, wage costs are particularly high in the petroleum industry, the iron and steel industry, mining and magnesite industry, and the pulp and paper industry, particularly low in apparel, leather, textile and wood industry.