European survey of employment costs

A new survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, the world’s largest employee benefits consultancy, shows that employment costs in western European countries are more than four times higher than those in the east.  At the extremes, costs in the most expensive countries are over ten times those in the least costly countries.

The highest annual employment costs are borne by Belgium, Sweden and Germany, closely followed by Luxembourg and the UK.  In contrast, Latvia and Lithuania have the lowest.