Real Purchasing Power: The Gap Between Austria and the CEE Region is Getting Smaller

BusinessEconomy ♦ Published: April 16, 2011; 12:34 ♦ (Vindobona)

For the coming years, a steady rise in unit labor costs in the CEE countries with the corresponding impact on the competition for business locations is expected.

Real Purchasing Power: The Gap Between Austria and the CEE Region is Getting Smaller / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / Blackfish [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

The comparison of Austria - CEE shows clearly: labor costs in Austria are a multiple of those in the examined CEE countries. In Austria, the level of average labor costs was at an average of € 3,966 per month in 2010, substantially above those of the Central and Eastern European countries. Slovenia is at 44% of the Austrian labor costs. The income in Bulgaria accounts for only 10% of…