From the "grass is always greener" department:
The Federation of European Employers (FedEE) has just published "Pay in
Europe 2004," a report on the median pay for 30 jobs in 46 countries.
According to the report, the biggest salary increases during the last year
were in Slovakia (+11.3%), Estonia (+9.8%) and Latvia (+9.6%) while hourly rates
went down in Portugal (-1.8%) and were virtually unchanged in Switzerland (-0.3%).
Overall median hourly earnings range from 27.89 euros in Denmark to 16.12 euros
in the UK and down to just 0.32 euros in Moldova. As of last week, the euro
was worth about $1.22.
A typical middle manager working a 35-hour week in a company employing 500
people would earn a basic annual salary of 3,565 euros ($4,361) in Russia, compared
to 43,316 euros ($52,997) in France and 55,929 euros ($68,429) in Germany.
The Federation (FedEE) was founded in 1989 with financial assistance from the
European Commission but operates today on an independent basis with corporate
members located principally in Europe and North America.
To view the 2004 European pay league table, please visit http://www.fedee.com/payineurope2004.shtml.
