Wages chasing prices

Lebanon's Al-Akhbar newspaper reports that Syrian construction workers in the Bekaa Valley—the agricultural heartlands of Lebanon—have recently won an average wage rise of 50 percent.

The article says that a worker who used to get up to $10 per cubic meter he lays, now gets $17. While a foreman receives $30, up from $20.

One of the contractors said that in the past 55 percent of the costs on a site went to pay workers' wages, this has risen to 70 percent.

The article points out that 9 out of ten manual workers in places such as Zahle (the largest city in the Bekaa Valley) are Syrian, and that any action by them would paralyze the construction industry.

However one worker said that this rise offsets a 50 percent increase in the cost of housing (up from $100 to $150 per month for a bed).