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Investment in Qualityper cent per year. These figures do not take account of tax changesor changes in public services.FUGURE 6.5Real Change in Gross Pay: 1998 to 2001 Economy-wideSource: European Economy, No. 2, Table 23.Recent Wage AgreementsIn recent months, a number of European countries have reachedagreement on modest wage increases. As noted above, in theNetherlands the social partners recently reached a new agreementthat included a centrally agreed pay limit of 2.5 per cent for 2003. InFinland, the social partners signed a new two-year agreement inDecember, 2002 covering 90 per cent of wage earners. The newagreement increases wages by 2.9 per cent in 2003 and 2.2 per centin 2004. In Germany agreement has been reached on a public sectorpay deal that provides increases of 4.4 per cent over 27 months. 116.4.5 International Comparison of Wage LevelsIn assessing the absolute levels of remuneration it is important todistinguish between the employer costs of labour includingemployers’ contributions to social security payments, which isimportant from an international competitiveness perspective for11. Information on the Netherlands and Finland is taken from the EuropeanIndustrial Relations Observatory Online, available at www.eiro.eurofound.ie.Information on Germany from the Financial Times, 10 January, 2003.268