Sept. 12, 1994 Dear Pen Readers, "The Nation" (April 27, 1992) had an article by Andrew L. Shapiro, title: We're Number One! (Really?) He said: We're Number One in managers. We're Last in growth of industrial productivity. We're Number One in executive salaries. We're Number One in inequality of pay. Then he provided the following interesting tables. TABLE 1: Percentage of economically active population who are managers or administrative workers, 1989; and percentage average annual growth of labor productivity, in output per employee, 1979-90: COUNTRY MANAGERS(%) PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH(%) United States 12.1 0.7 Australia 11.9 0.9 Canada 11.9 1.2 Austria 4.7 1.9 Japan 3.7 3.0 Netherlands 3.3 1.5 Denmark 3.0 2.1 Finland 3.0 3.6 TABLE 2: Average renumeration of chief executive officers (CEOs), and CEO remuneration as a multiple of average manufacturing employee remuneration, 1991: COUNTRY CEO SALARIES(US$) RATIO: CEO TO WORKER United States $747,500 25 France 448,500 16 Switzerland 424,100 11 Italy 421,300 14 Canada 407,600 12 United Kingdom 399,600 16 Belgium 397,300 13 Japan 371,800 11 Germany 364,500 10 Sweden 335,600 10 Netherlands 297,900 10 Austria 271,300 14 TABLE 3: We're Last in paid vacation days. Paid vacation days per year, 1991: COUNTRY VACATION DAYS COUNTRY VACATION DAYS Netherlands 31.9 Norway 31.4 Germany 29.9 Finland 28.6 Sweden 27.8 France 27.0 Austria 26.8 Denmark 25.0 Belgium 24.6 Italy 24.6 United Kingdom 24.5 Japan 24.0 Switzerland 23.4 Australia 22.4 Canada 14.7 United States 10.8 Cheers! Fikret Ceyhun Dept. of Econ, Univ. of North Dakota University Station, box 8369 Grand Forks, ND 58202 (701)777-3348 voice; (701)777-5099 fax [EMAIL PROTECTED] e-mail