スペインの労働改革による賃金凍結削減で、スペイン国民の実質購買力は下落、市場の縮小
Los salarios pagan esta ronda de ajustes
La reforma laboral propicia que los sueldos, de media, se congelen en 2012.
La estrategia para ser más competitivos pasa factura a las rentas familiares
Alejandro Bolaños Madrid 3 MAR 2013 - 01:11 CET
Wages paid this round of adjustments
Labor reform conducive to salaries, on average, freeze in 2012.
The strategy to be more competitive takes a toll on household incomes
Alejandro Bolaños Madrid 3 MAR 2013 - 01:11 CET
Achieved. "The wage restraint" was one of the government's goals with its labor reform, as evidenced by the plans sent to Brussels to approve it soon. After another sharp blow to employment, with 850,000 jobs lost in 2012, the latest data attest that wage stagnation, loss of purchasing power for most workers. And leave clues that lowering the salary is no longer the exception, and is poised to become the rule.
The last test was offered this week's national accounts. Never before has the set of wage earnings had fallen as much as in the fourth quarter of 2012, down from 8.5% a year. The contrast with the businesses and freelancers surplus, which rose 1.4%, was remarkable. To the extent that business income for the first time exceeded the wage in the distribution of wealth relative to GDP.
But if there is a statistic that accurately reflects the wage decline is the evolution of unit labor costs, an index linking employee compensation to labor productivity: the lower the advance of wages, the higher productivity, more be low. It is a shortcut to gain advantage in international trade. Without the option of devaluing the currency, is committed to internal devaluation: price competition, which now equals lower wages.
The government had in 2012 a reduction of unit labor costs of 3.5% over the previous year. And almost nails it: was around 3.4%. "There are signs that wages in Spain are becoming more sensitive to the economic situation." The European Commission held it in his own way, convoluted and nothing sensible.
"The Spanish economy to be more competitive, productivity recover. And in the short term, it is difficult to change the technology or increase capital endowment, competing on price is a valid strategy. What you need to do is how to share the effort and where is the line, "said Miguel Angel Garcia, the economic cabinet of CCOO.
Spain had task: in the years of the housing boom, GDP grew by incorporating employment, with very low productivity. And compensation per employee also increased apace in parallel with inflation. Moreover, the business scope. The result was that he lost productivity rope with its European partners, while fattening their costs. And then broke the Great Recession.
The brutal rise in unemployment since 2008 corrects the drawback in productivity for the simple way to do anything less with a lot less. The Triple R (labor reform, recession and cuts) returned to accelerate job losses in 2012. And labor productivity offsets and delaying the boom years. "Productivity is a passive, active gains must be achieved with work organization, with more use of capital," Garcia objected.
This increase in productivity has contributed to unit labor costs also recover ground in comparison. The cumulative decline since 2009 is greater than that achieved Germany between 2003 and 2007, the paradigm of wage moderation. And, again, the trend accelerated in 2012, the year of the wage freeze.
Compensation per employee, the national accounting approach to the evolution of wages, only grew 0.3% in 2012, after the removal of the extra officials to take down 3% in the fourth quarter. More clues: the wage cost per worker and stopped growing in the third quarter, according to the survey work. And the rise of wages agreed in the agreements signed in January is less than 0.4%.
The Spanish economy reacted to the Great Recession with massive layoffs of temporary workers. With labor reform, the government intended to force the permanent workers to accept pay cuts showing the exit door (cheaper dismissal) and facilitating the breach of the covenants. But, with another recession over, companies choose to use the entire legal arsenal made available: no pay cuts, but many layoffs of permanent workers.
"Wages and Employment put all the sacrifice. Must Stop "keeps CC OO analyst and professor at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. "The surplus of enterprises is not intended to increase investment, to provide productivity. They are dedicated to share profits and reduce debt. "
Business margins have also contributed, along with tax increases, to keep inflation high, despite the collapse of wage income, resulting in a severe loss of purchasing power. "I understand the complaints union, so should be the first to call for liberalizing the economy, to bring down those margins," Tierce Ignacio Conde-Ruiz, deputy director of the foundation Fedea.
Conde-Ruiz concedes that labor reform "accelerates" the salary adjustment, but argues that "in the short term, is the only way" to prevent further job losses. "It has given more power to companies to lower wages and maintain employment if possible", says Professor at the Complutense.
"Sell more out is a must, and that's much easier if your wages per unit of products are more competitive," he insists. Exports have increased by 23% since 2009 and account for a third of GDP. It is an endorsement of the strategy, but recent analyzes, such as the BBVA Research Department, play down the role of prices in advance.
Only time will tell how far this strategy gains offset the erosion in consumption (60% of GDP), burdened by downward wage income, for a strike that never stops. "We changed the model, but we outgrew, leaves out 25% of the workforce," notes economist CCOO. "For an investor, it's cheap labor," said the deputy director of Fedea, "but the entry barriers and doubts about whether there will be new taxes on foreign investment away. And, here, the restructuring of the banking credit drowns. "
What a chimera is repeating the German miracle, despite some recent occurrence - "Spain is the next Germany," Morgan Stanley dropped. And not just because the production structure is very different. When Germany tried wage moderation, the rest of Europe, with Spain in the lead, became indebted to lower costs to prime demand. No banking crisis and widespread budget cuts. The opposite of what happens now.
"The tale of two settings," as he has called the Nobel Prize in Economics, Paul Krugman, has moral for Spain: "An incredible unemployment". In the German setting, less than a decade ago, the unemployment rate rose from 8% to 11% in the Spanish setting, the starting level was similar, and is now at 26%. In his blog, Krugman does not miss the chance to charge the Executive Angela Merkel to privilege control deficits and inflation, not to stimulate demand and wages: "Germany rejects do for Spain what Spain did for Germany."
賃金調整は、このラウンドを支払った
給与に資する労働改革は、平均して、2012年に凍結。
もっと競争力を持つための戦略は、家計所得に通行料を取る
アレハンドロボラニョスマドリード3 MAR 2013 - 1時11 CET
0 件のコメント:
コメントを投稿