Albanians Work Longer for Less Pay, Survey Says

The survey of medium and large companies in the country that was carried out by the National Institute of Statistics discovered that Albanians usually work longer hours while getting paid much less than workers in neighbouring countries with similar levels of economic development.

The survey, conducted among a representative sample of companies that employ 10 workers or more, found out that the average employee works for about 2,120 hours per year and costs his or her company just 2.2 euro per hour.

The average worker in OECD countries, which are among the world's wealthiest, spends about 1,770 hours per year at work.

The Albanian Institute of Statistics says that the most costly worker in Europe lives in Norway, where companies have to spend 57.1 euros per hour on each employee.

In the Balkans, after Albania, Bulgaria is the second least costly for companies; there, an hour of work costs on average 3.4 euros per hour. Third is Macedonia at 3.5 euros per hour.

In Romania, workers cost about 4.1 euros per hour while in Serbia they cost 5.1 Euros per hour.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina the rate is 5.3 euros per hour and in Montenegro, 5.8 euros per hour.

These costs include all companies' expenditures on their workforce, including wages, social insurance contributions and money spent on job training.

Albania, Macedonia and Bosnia have a similar level of GDP per capita and differences in labour costs reflect several factors, including the rate of taxation, the structure of the economic production and productivity.