White Collar Gobal Wage Comparison

US white collar workers were in 2012 better paid than their colleagues in the rest of the world.  

Median wage earned by American  managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals is the highest in the world. The best-paid colleagues overseas, who usually live in Europe receive about $5 per hour less when adjusted for the purchasing power parity. Compeers in Asia, Africa (except South Africa) and the former Soviet Union countries earn a lot less.

This is the outcome of the Loonwijzer-Monsterboard Wage Index, an international study of median wages and the labor market.

The Europeans are overall second best paid in these 4 profession groups. For example, when accounting for cost of living an US manager makes $6 more per hour compared to his or her UK peer.  For an IT or finance professional this is $4, while a technician or an associate professional earns almost $5 on top of the salary of his/her UK colleague.

Not surprisingly the manager is the best-paid white-collar worker. A typical US manager earns $30 per hour, while in Europe that same manager would earn between  $6.5 (Russia) and $26.9 (Netherlands).  The wages of South American managers are lower, between $7.4 (Brazil) and $19.8 (Chile). A Chinese manager earns $5.4, which is almost 25 dollar less than his or her US colleague.

The professionals are a large group. You find them in finance, IT, sales, engineering and so on. In the US they earn a median salary of $28 per hour compared to $25.8 in Germany, $8.6 in India, $5 in Russia $4.6 in China and $2.3 in Egypt.

Technicians and associate professionals earn a median wage of $23.8 per hour, $4 more than the best paid European with $19.5 in the Netherlands.

Managers:

• The Global Wage Comparison on: Professionals, Technicians and associate professionals, Clerical support workers.