Jurriaan, my study on international wage differences, including some long-term trends, is now published (Global Wage System. New York: Nova Science. See also, amazon.com). I would like to send you a copy, but I don�t have your email address. My email is
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Gernot Kohler
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: International comparison of real wages 2003 From: Jurriaan Bendien Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2004
Using mainly OECD data on gross wages, tax rates and social security levies, I calculated the 2003 real, take-home annual salary for a single individual without children, at the income level of an average production worker, in US dollars with equal purchasing power.
In other words, I am talking about the average real income actually received by a worker from paid employment, after deduction of income taxes and social security levies. The result is as follows:
$31,267 Korea* $28,421 Australia $27,289 Switzerland $25,641 Luxemburg $25,627 Netherlands $25,429 United States $24,879 Japan $24,695 Canada $23,960 Norway $23,519 United Kingdom $22,569 New Zealand $21,601 Denmark $21,515 Ireland $21,360 Iceland $20,578 Germany $20,420 Belgium $20,186 Finland $19,579 Italy $18,717 Austria $17,808 France $17,365 Spain $17,327 Sweden $12,550 Greece $11,717 Czech Republic $10,713 Turkey $10,068 Portugal $10,013 Poland $8,926 Mexico $7,318 Slovak Republic $6,895 Hungary $6,000 China** $5,700 Russia***
*Koreans average 25% more working hours than in the USA and a low impost on gross wages in terms of taxes & levies. ** own estimate, based on 70% of an average Beijing wage, a 20% tax rate, and a 4.7x conversion factor. This urban real wage could be slightly overestimated, because wage rates between different urban centres vary by as much as 100%. Thus, while wages are highest in Shanghai, in inner Mongolia they average less than half of Shanghai wages. *** own estimate, based on a gross annual salary of about 66,000 roubles, a 13% tax rate and a 2.8x conversion factor.
I hope one of these Marxist professors will do some research into international trends in real wages some day.
Jurriaan
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