On the wages of locomotive drivers at Deutsche Bahn AG

DIW Weekly Report 43/2007, pp. 621-629

On behalf of Deutsche Bahn AG (DB), DIW Econ, a consulting subsidiary of DIW Berlin, compared the wages of DB locomotive drivers with the incomes of dependent employees in other sectors of the economy and in other transport occupations. The study also included the wages of locomotive drivers in private German railway companies as well as in railway companies in other countries. Skilled workers in the manufacturing industry receive lower hourly wages on average than DB locomotive drivers; only in the car industry, the publishing industry and in the energy supply industry are higher skilled workers’ wages paid. Significantly lower wages are paid to people in other transport occupations, e.g. professional drivers. Compared to private railway companies in Germany, DB generally remunerates the performance of its locomotive drivers higher. There are railway companies with higher remuneration, but only slightly above the DB level. Internationally, there are large differences in the pay of locomotive drivers; there are also countries in which this occupational group is paid more than in Germany. In these countries, however, the other wages and the cost of living are generally higher than in Germany.

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