According to preliminary figures provided by the Federal Statistical Office people working full time in industry earned on average 3103 Euros in October 2006 which is an increase by 1.8% as compared to the previous month. Given that consumer prices increased by just 1.1% over the same period, salaries grew by 0.7 percent in real terms.
On average office staff earned 3961 Euros (+1.6%) and workers 2606 Euros (+1.7%) in October 2006. On the other hand the number of paid weekly working hours also rose by 1.2% to 38.5 hours so that hourly earnings by workers increased by just 0.5%.
In the service sector (trade, banking and insurance business) gross monthly salaries of office staff stood at 2832 Euros in trade (+1.6%) and 3498 Euros in banking and insurance business (+2.0%) and were thus lower than those paid to office staff in industry. Salaries paid to women rose by 2.1% in banking and insurance business which corresponds to an increase being by 0.3 percent stronger than that of their male colleagues (+1.8%). 