In 2008 a working hour cost Austrian manufacturers € 31.40, 12.0 percent more than the average of the other EU-15 countries. This sum is made up of a wage share of € 16.70 plus € 14.70 in non-wage labour costs. At 88 percent, the incidental costs were slightly lower than in the previous year.

In 2008, Austria ranked ninth in the international labour cost hierarchy. Labour was most expensive in Norway, Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden. As the Austrian economy was less affected by the global economic crisis than the economies of its trading partners, Austria's labour productivity and...