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Welding work in a shipyard: labor costs are made up of gross earnings and non-wage labor costs
Photo: Christian Charisius / dpa
Working hours are comparatively expensive in Germany.
But there are federal states where employers have to spend more for their employees - especially in Hamburg.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, the labor costs in 2020 were the highest in the city-state at EUR 42.85 per hour worked.
They were lowest in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania at EUR 29.27, while the national average was EUR 37.17.
Nevertheless, the regional differences no longer stand for "primarily East-West differences," write the statisticians.
Rather, there are three groups of countries, each with similarly high labor costs:
Labor costs are highest in Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and the city states of Hamburg, Berlin and Bremen.
The states of Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland form a middle group.
Labor costs in 2020 were still lowest in the eastern German non-city states.
There are also significant differences depending on the industry.
According to this, areas with many low-wage workers have the lowest labor costs – such as gastronomy (EUR 20.57), accommodation (EUR 21.46) and the area of “building maintenance” as well as gardening and landscaping (EUR 21.90).
Retirement provision differs greatly depending on the industry
Labor costs were more than three times as high in the »coking plant and mineral oil processing« (66.68 euros) and in broadcasting stations (74.51 euros).
According to the office, what is striking here is the high proportion of labor costs that flow into the company pension scheme: Employers in the "coking plant and mineral oil processing" sector paid an average of 13.9 percent of the employee's remuneration into the company pension scheme for their employees, and in the case of broadcasters even 20.1 percent .
For comparison: in the retail trade, just 0.4 percent of the employee's salary went into a company pension scheme.
Labor costs are made up of gross earnings and non-wage labor costs.
Gross earnings include remuneration for hours worked, special payments, capital-forming benefits, benefits in kind and remuneration for days not worked - such as vacation or public holidays.
The ancillary wage costs include employers' social security contributions including continued payment of wages in the event of illness, costs of vocational training and further education, other expenses and taxes.
Wage subsidies reduce labor costs.
Employers paid less for education and training in 2020 than before.
The statisticians suspect that this could be due to the limited further training opportunities due to the corona.
Apr/Reuters
