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Wage Bargainingbe acquired for it that is the primary concern of workers.Preliminary and tentative analysis by the Council suggests that onceadjusting for direct taxation, variations in the number of hoursworked and the cost of living, Irish married couples on the averagewage enjoy the fourth highest monetary standard of living whereasfor a single person on 167 per cent of the average wage is seventh ina league of his European counterparts. The Council should stressthat the analysis it has undertaken is indicative rather than definitivebut that it appears to lend broad support to the recent work carriedout by PWC for Forfás (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2002) thatsuggested that Irish workers were the third best remunerated in theeuro-zone post-tax and despite higher costs of living retain apurchasing power income above average. It also suggests that theIrish direct taxation system is somewhat more progressive in naturethan our European counterparts.6.4.6 Variation and Trends in Wage and Profit SharesThe recovery of the Irish economy in the late 1980s and through the1990s was associated with an increase in profitability, as well asincreased living standards and employment. Rates of profitabilityand trends in profit shares differ significantly across sectors. Thetrends in wage share in the main sectors and in the overall nonagriculturaleconomy are shown in Table 6.6. This shows that whilethe wage share of total gross value-added fell by around sevenpercentage points in the overall non-agricultural economy, this wasdriven by trends in the manufacturing sector. The bottom row ofTable 6.6 shows that wage share in the overall economy, outside ofmanufacturing, was broadly stable between 1991 and 1999.Indeed, trends in wage and profit share also vary significantlywithin manufacturing. The falling wage share within manufacturingas a whole is mainly due to a number of high-tech sectors. Thisis illustrated in Table 6.7, which shows labour costs as a shareof value-added in selected high-tech sectors and in overallmanufacturing.271