Hourly compensation costs in U.S. dollars for production workers
 In manufacturing, 31 countries or areas and 
Selected economic groups, selected years, 1975-2003
 
 
Country 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2001 2002 2003
 
 
 Americas
United States 6.16 9.63 12.71 14.72 17.02 19.46 20.29 21.11 21.97
Brazil.... - - - - - 3.50 2.94 2.53 2.67
Canada.......6.11 8.87 11.20 16.33 16.50 16.48 16.24  16.68 19.28
Mexico...... 1.47 2.21 1.59 1.58 1.46 2.19 2.51 2.60 2.48
 
 Asia and Oceania
Australia....5.62 8.47 8.21 13.14 15.42 14.48 13.31 15.50 20.05
Hong Kong 1)0.75 1.50 1.73 3.22 4.80 5.45  5.74 5.66 5.54
Israel.......2.03 3.41 3.66 7.71 9.50 11.49 12.26 11.01 11.73
Japan........2.97 5.46 6.27 12.54 23.55 21.89 19.25 18.49 20.09
Korea........0.32 0.95 1.23 3.69 7.26 8.23 7.69 9.00 10.28
New Zealand..3.10 5.14 4.30 8.01 9.78 7.91 7.53 8.63 11.13
Singapore....0.84 1.48 2.45 3.73 7.23 7.36 7.28 6.90 7.41
Sri Lanka....0.28 0.22 0.28 0.35 0.48 0.48 0.45 0.49 -
Taiwan.......0.38 1.02 1.50 3.89 5.88 6.18 6.03 5.73 5.84
 
 Europe
Austria.....4.50 8.87 7.57 17.91 25.26 19.17 19.08 20.69 25.38
Belgium.....6.39 13.07 8.94 19.10 27.53 21.53 20.98 22.74 27.73
Czech Repl - - - - 2.53 2.83 3.13 3.83 4.71
Denmark.....6.24 10.77 8.10 18.35 25.43 22.76 23.26 25.62 32.18
Finland.....4.63 8.30 8.20 21.15 24.31 19.44 19.85 21.78 27.17
France......4.50 8.90 7.48 15.36 19.26 15.46 15.65 17.12 21.13
Germany-West6.26 12.16 9.46 21.71 31.40 23.66 23.55 25.44 31.25
Germany.. ....- - - - 30.08 22.65 22.54 24.34 29.91
Greece... ..1.69 3.72 3.65 6.69 8.94 - - - -
Ireland.....3.06 6.03 6.00 11.78 13.77 12.76 13.64 15.31 19.14
Italy.......4.64 8.09 7.56 17.28 15.91 14.05 13.81 14.97 18.35
Luxembourg..6.22 11.51 7.48 16.00 23.36 17.51 17.21 18.71 23.11
Netherlands.6.58 12.05 8.73 17.98 24.03 19.33 19.65 21.62 26.84
Norway......6.90 11.80 10.47 21.76 24.84 22.66 23.29 27.29 31.55
Portugal....1.52 1.98 1.46 3.59 5.09 4.49 4.59 5.07 6.23
Spain.......2.52 5.86 4.64 11.30 12.70 10.66 10.76 11.93 14.96
Sweden......7.14 12.44 9.61 20.82 21.46 20.18 18.39 20.23 25.18
Switzerland.6.03 10.96 9.55 20.63 28.99 21.02 21.60 23.84 27.87
UK  3.39 7.52 6.23 12.62 13.79 16.82 16.50 17.89 20.37
 
 Trade-weighted measures (2,3)
All 30 foreign economies - - - 14.16 13.70 14.22 16.42
 less Brazil, Czech
Republic... 3.8 6.54 6.73 11.99 15.35 14.37 13.92 14.45 16.69
OECD (4,5)..4.21 7.11 7.26 12.88 16.35 15.20 14.69 15.32 17.79
Europe (5)..5.01 9.75 7.88 17.10 21.66 18.42 18.34 20.00 24.22
EU-15(6) 4.94 9.67 7.77 16.88 21.33 18.31 18.19 19.80 24.05
AsianNIEs(7)0.51 1.16 1.64 3.70 6.46 6.99 6.79 7.02 7.57
 
 Dash means data not available.
 (1) Hong Kong special administrative region of China.
 (2) Because data for Germany are not available before 1993, data for
 the former West Germany only are included in the trade-weighted measures.
 (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) Data for the Czech Republic are not included for 1975-1994.
 (6) European Union-15 refers to European Union member countries prior 
to the expansion
 of the European Union to 25 countries on May 1, 2004.
 (7) The Asian NIEs are Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.
 
 Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 2004.