Labour Share Convergence in the European Union

Abstract

The article examines the issue of labour share convergence between Western Europe (EU15) and Central and Eastern Europe (EU11). The results of our research show that for the period of 2009–2018, the convergence of labour share between the EU11 and the EU15 at the aggregate level was almost 40%. At the sectoral level, convergence of labour share between the EU11 and the EU15 occurred in three of the four main sectors—manufacturing, services, and construction—while there was a divergence in the trade sector. At the sectoral level, the highest level of convergence occurred in manufacturing—over 89.7%. In the service sector, the convergence of labour share was almost 45%, but this was mainly due to the fact that in the information and communication industry, the convergence was almost 87.8%. We have determined that for a number of sectors and industries there is an inverse relationship between the level of labour share and its dynamics, which influences the convergence of labour share between the EU11 and the EU15. We also determined that during the period under review, the level of convergence of labour share between the EU11 and the EU15 was five times higher than the level of convergence of the economy and ascertained the main reasons for the labour share convergence being higher than the economy convergence.