I live in a city dominated by the CAW and union politicians. With respect, seriously, you sound like a union "economist". I would really like to see your reference for that 7% figure.
In the US, it takes about 30 hours total, for the body, engine, transmission, assembly, paint, etc. doesn't include things like outsourced parts and mining the ore (or recycling old cars). the labor costs from $55-$70 per hour including benefits so about $2100 per car, or roughly 8% the cost of the average car. doesn't sound that high until you compare the Tata Nano, which costs $2500 total. Labor costs are higher at companies with older presences, because they tend to have more expensive health care, larger families, and because the pensions become more expensive over time. national health care and pensions would make doing business a lot easier. Ford and GM pay ~$70 and Toyota pays ~$55 [Source(s) unknown]. $70/hr sounds like a ton of money, but starting wage for laborers is only about $14/hr, which is barely enough to pay the bills in the US. The top earners make $29/hr. Health care and pensions cost equivalent of about $15/hr, vacation time, overtime, sick leave are the equivalent of roughly $10 per hour. Benefits for retirees are roughly $15/hr (this isn't really wages by most definitions but ends up in all the reports). Maybe its time for the US government to step up and provide reasonable health care for working and retired people who pay taxes all their lives?
Reference 2: The total labor cost of a new vehicle produced in the United States is about $2,400 which includes direct, indirect and salaried labor for engines, stamping and assembly at the automakers’ plants. This represents 8.4 percent of the typical $28,4513 price of a new vehicle in 2006. The vast majority of the costs of producing a vehicle and transporting it to a dealership and preparing it for sale – including design, engineering, marketing, raw materials, executive compensation and other costs – are not related to direct or indirect manufacturing labor.