Chapter 4 — Employment and wages in industry by region 66
Chapter 4 — Employment and wages in industry by region Electrical machinery and apparatus In Germany, wages are again highest in electrical engineering in Bayern and Baden-Württemberg where the sector is of most importance (employment is generally low in the new Länder). In France, wage differences between the main regions are relatively small. In Italy, wages are again high in Lombardia (10–15% above other parts of the north). In the Netherlands, wages are highest in Giederland and Limburg, the only two regions where employment in the sector is more than 1% of working-age population. In Austria, wages are substantially higher in Vorarlberg than in Burgenland (a former Objective 1 region) in both of which employment is similarly high. In Italy, there is less of difference in wages between north and south than in other sectors, wages in Lombardia being some 15% higher than in Basilicata. In Sweden, wage levels are similar across regions. In the UK, differences are again very much wider, wages being around twice the level in the West Midlands than in Northumberland, where the sector is equally important. In the new Member States, the sector employs sizeable numbers of people only in a relatively few places. In most cases, wages are relatively high in those places, such as Nyugat-Dunántúl in the west of Hungary, Pomorskie in the north of Poland and Bratislavsky in Slovakia. Regional wage differences are also relatively wide in Sweden, where most regions have over 1% of working-age population in employment in the sector. In the UK, few regions have employment in electrical engineering this high, but in those that do, wages are around 30% higher in Hampshire in the south than in Shropshire in the west centre. In the new Member States, employment in the sector is relatively small except in Hungary and Slovakia. In both cases, wages are much higher in the capital city regions than elsewhere. Transport equipment In Belgium, wage levels are similar in Brussels and in the Flemish regions where the transport equipment sector is concentrated. In Germany, wages are once more higher than elsewhere in Bayern and Baden-Württemberg, though also in Bremen, Braunschweig and Saarland. Wages are substantially lower in the new Länder, but few work in the sector. In Spain, average wages are similar in the main regions — Navarra, Aragon and Cataluña –except in Galicia (an Objective 1 region) where they are 10% lower. Wages are also similar across the main French regions — Franche-Comté, Alsace, Haute-Normandie — but 30% or so lower than in Île de France, where large numbers are employed in the sector in absolute terms. 67