Germany’s average private sector pay – which includes gross earnings and non-wage costs such as social contributions – rose by 1.6 percent to €31.80 per hour in 2014, according to the federal German statistics office.

This put Germany at eighth place in the EU for labour costs and behind most of its neighbouring countries. In France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and Luxembourg private sector workers were all paid on average more than in Germany.

French workers were paid on average more than 10 percent more than German workers at €35.20 per hour.

Workers in Denmark were paid the highest on average across the EU at €42 per hour – about 32 percent more than German workers. Bulgarian workers were paid the lowest on average at €3.80 per hour.

Still, German workers were paid 30 percent more per hour than the EU average of €25.30.

Germany ranked higher for average pay in the manufacturing sector, at fourth place in the EU with an average rate of €37 per hour and falling only behind Belgium, Denmark and Sweden.

German private sector employers paid an additional 28 euros of non-wage costs per 100 euros of gross earnings, which put Germany below the EU average of 31 euros.

Non-wage costs mainly include employers’ social contributions, such as employers’ social security contributions, employee pension schemes and continued pay in case of sickness.

France paid the highest average non-wage costs per 100 euros of wages at €47, followed by Sweden (46 euros) and Belgium (44 euros), with the lowest in Malta (9 euros).