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rr808 8 hours ago

Even states like Mississippi and Iowa have low housing costs and wages much higher than Spain.

Shitty-kitty 8 hours ago | parent [-]

If you want to do a real comparison then you have to include the cost of healthcare.

rayiner 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yes, but that cuts in the other direction. In the U.S., skilled work like subway construction will provide employer-paid healthcare. U.S. employers pay $1.3 trillion a year in healthcare benefits. You have to account for that on top of the reported wages. So that makes U.S. workers even more expensive relative to workers in Europe, where healthcare will be paid from taxes on the wages paid to employees.

Total compensation in the U.S. construction industry is about $46/hour on average: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecec.pdf. That's almost $92,000 for a 2,000-hour year.

rr808 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes that is another reason, high healthcare costs for employing workers means higher construction costs in the USA.