Posts Tagged ‘Germany’

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Tens of thousands of workers from Germany’s engineering, metalworking, and electrical industries have downed their tools in a series of rolling strikes during the past week in order to press for a better pay package.

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According to a new report from the International Labor Organization, Global Wage Report 2012/13: Wages and Equitable Growth,

Between 1999 and 2011 average labour productivity in developed economies increased more than twice as much as average wages (see figure 11). In the United States, real hourly labour productivity in the non-farm business sector increased by about 85 per cent since 1980, while real hourly compensation increased by only around 35 per cent. In Germany, labour productivity surged by almost a quarter over the past two decades while real monthly wages remained flat.

The global trend has resulted in a change in the distribution of national income, with the workers’ share decreasing while capital income shares increase in a majority of countries. Even in China, a country where wages roughly tripled over the last decade, GDP increased at a faster rate than the total wage bill – and hence the labour share went down.

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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development compiles an index from 21 items covering three different aspects of employment protection: individual dismissal of workers with regular contracts, additional costs for collective dismissals, regulation of temporary contracts.

Not surprisingly, the United States has the lowest ranking on the list, fall below the OECD average. That explains the sharp rise in U.S. unemployment during the Second Great Depression. Notice, also, that while Greece and Spain are above the OECD average—and are being forced to create “more flexible” labor markets—Germany, too, has above-average employment protection.

Greeks protest the visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel with a banner that reads “Merkel, Raus (Out), Killer of 3500 Greeks.”

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