Proč nemohou být mzdy v České republice stejné jako v Německu: produktivita práce, struktura firem a bariéry růstu z pohledu firem

The aim of this thesis was to examine why wages in the Czech Republic remain lower than in Germany despite substantial productivity growth. The thesis focuses on the extent to which the wage gap can be explained by differences in labor productivity and what role firm structure, foreign ownership and the position of firms within multinational production networks play in this relationship. The theoretical part reviews approaches to wage determination, labor productivity, multinational enterprises and global value chains. The empirical part analyzes large firms in the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany using Orbis database data for the period of 2017-2019, focusing on labor productivity, employee costs, wage share and profitability across ownership groups. The thesis also includes case studies of Škoda Auto / Volkswagen, Hyundai, Orlen and Foxconn to identify mechanisms of value creation and value capture within multinational corporate structures. The results showed that productivity differences explain wage differences only partially. Foreign-owned firms in the Czech Republic and Poland exhibited higher productivity, but the share of value distributed to employees remained lower than in comparable firms operating in Germany. The findings suggest that wage convergence depends not only on productivity growth, but also on the ability of the economy to participate in higher value-added segments of global value chains. The contribution of the thesis lies in connecting productivity, wages and firm structure from a firm-level perspective and in showing that wage convergence cannot be assessed only through aggregate productivity indicators.