Directions (Q. 1-7): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given below it.
‘Global Wage Report 2010-11: Wage policies in times of crisis’, a study by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), was released on December 19, 2010. The study reveals that the global financial and economic crisis has led to a considerable slowdown in the rate of growth of real wages around the world.
The second in a series of ILO reports focusing on wage developments, this volume reviews the global and regional wage trends during the years of the economic and financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. The report highlights the slowdown in the growth of monthly average wages as well as some short-term fluctuations in the wage share. These changes happened against a backdrop of wage moderation in the years before the crisis and a long-term trend of rising wage inequality since the mid-1990s.
The global financial and economic crisis has led to a considerable slowdown in the rate of growth of real wages around the world. The report estimates that the growth in real average monthly wages declined from 2.8 per cent before the crisis in 2007 to 1.5 per cent in 2008 and 1.6 per cent in 2009. Excluding China (where official statistics only cover “urban units” linked to the State), the report calculates that real wage growth declined from 2.2 per cent in 2007 to 0.8 per cent in 2008 and 0.7 per cent in 2009. While the rate of wage growth slowed in virtually all countries, it turned negative in more than a quarter of the countries and territories included in our sample in 2008, and in one-fifth in 2009.
There are considerable regional variations in wage growth. In advanced countries, the report estimates that, after having grown at about 0.8 per cent per year before the crisis, real wages actually fell by 0.5 per cent at the onset of the crisis in 2008 before growing at a rate of 0.6 per cent in 2009. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, real wage growth fell from an average of about 17.0 per cent in 2007 (when wages were still recovering from the collapse that took place in the early stages of transition) to 10.6 per cent in 2008 and to -2.2 per cent in 2009.
In Central and Eastern Europe, real wage growth fell from 6.6 per cent in 2007 to 4.6 per cent in 2008 and -0.1 per cent in 2009. In Asia, real wages have grown in excess of 7 per cent throughout the period 2006-09, with rates 7.2 per cent in 2007 to 7.1 per cent in 2008 and 8 per cent in 2009. In Latin America and the Caribbean, it is estimated that real wage growth slowed from 3.3 per cent in 2007 to 1.9 per cent in 2008 and 2.2 per cent in 2009. For Africa, ILO’s provisional estimates indicate that in 2007 real monthly wages grew at about 1.4 per cent before declining to 0.5 per cent in 2008 and rebounding to 2.4 per cent in 2009. In the Middle East, it is too early even for a tentative estimate on wage growth in 2008 and 2009, as too few countries have reported their wage data so far. However, available data for earlier years suggest that wages of workers in the Middle East (a large share of whom are migrant workers) did not increase very rapidly even before the crisis.
Directions (Q. 1-2): Mark the statement(s) which are true from the undernoted options given.
1. (A) The real wage growth rate from the period before the global financial and economic crisis in 2007 slowed from 2.8% to 1.6% in 2009.
(B) The real wage growth rate scaled up from 1.5% in 2008 to 1.6% in 2009.
1) Only (A)
2) Only (B)
3) Both (A) and (B)
4) Either (A) or (B)
5) None of these
2. (A) The real wage growth rate in advanced countries declined to negative in 2009.
(B) According to the passage, the real wage growth rate of about one-fourth of the countries included in the sample turned negative in the year 2008.
1) Only (A)
2) Only (B)
3) Both (A) and (B)
4) Either (A) or (B)
5) None of these
3. The real wage growth rates in Central Europe in 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively were ______ (in per cent).
1) 4.6, 6.6 & 0.1
2) 6.6, 4.6 & 0.1
3) 4.6, –0.1 & 6.6
4) Not mentioned in the passage
5) None of these
4. In Asia, the real wage growth rate throughout the period of 2006-09 was
1) more than 7%2) more than 8%
3) less than 7%
4) Not mentioned in the passage
5) None of these
5. The passage tries to discuss ‘The Global Wage Report 2010-11’, a study done by
1) Global Labour Organisation
2) World Trade Organisation
3) International Monetary Fund
4) International Labour Organisation
5) None of these
6. The central objective of the report in question was to study
1) Global wage policies
2) Trend of changes in wages with regional effect
3) Wage policies in times of global economic and financial crisis
4) Changes in wages policies in a unipolar world
5) None of these
7. The wage report concerned was released on
1) Dec 2010
2) 9th Dec 2009
3) 19th Dec 2009
4) 19th Dec 2010
5) None of these
Answers
- 3
- 2
- 4
- 1
- 4
- 3
- 4