The NBA, Exit Discrimination, and Career Earnings

The purpose of this article is threefold. First, it complements the many wage discrimination studies by examining exit discrimination in the NBA using a decade's worth of data (the 1980s). White players have a 36 percent lower risk of being cut than black players, ceteris paribus , translating into an expected career length of 7.5 seasons for an apparently similar player who is white and 5.5 seasons for the same player who is black. Second, the career earnings effect of exit discrimination in the 1980s is larger ($808,000) than the career earnings effect of wage discrimination ($329,000). Third, our data are consistent with the hypothesis that customer racial discrimination is the reason for the observed exit discrimination.     

Theory of the Perfect Game: Competitive Balance in Monopoly Sports Leagues

Based on the limiting assumption that sports owners are profit maximizers the invariance proposition holds that revenue sharing has no impact on competitive balance in sports leagues. If owners are win-maximizing sportsmen instead, then revenue sharing can lead to increased competitive balance and higher payrolls. Evidence of the sportsman effect is provided by erosion of monopsonistic exploitation in the four major American sports leagues where players now share about 60% of revenues. Monopsony power erosion forces sports-league cartels to exploit statutory monopoly power in monster deals for media rights fees and public venue subsidies. New evidence on competitive balance suggests that revenue sharing leads to increased balance with or without team salary caps. Optimum competitive balance is an empirical question, and the answer lies between random competition of the NFL and deterministic dynasties of the NBA.      

The Effect of Interest Arbitration on Salary Dispersion Among Employers

This study uses Wisconsin teacher salary grid data for the period 1974–75 to 1984–85 to examine the impact of interest arbitration on wage determination and salary dispersion among employers. Models of wage determination are developed and estimated using observations from a period before and after implementation of arbitration. These wage equations are then used to decompose the difference in the variance of the log wages for the two periods. The results suggest that although observed salary dispersion is greater at the statewide level under arbitration, the imposition of arbitration mitigates the impact of measured factors on wage determination, resulting in less salary dispersion within small clusters of school districts, all else constant.     

Collective Bargaining and the Evolution of Wage Inequality in Italy

Italian male wage inequality has increased at a relatively fast pace from the mid‐1980s until the early 2000s, while it has been persistently flat since then. We analyse this trend, focusing on the period of most rapid growth in pay dispersion. By accounting for worker and firm fixed effects, it is shown that workers' heterogeneity has been a major determinant of increased wage inequalities, while variability in firm wage policies has declined over time. We also show that the growth in pay dispersion has entirely occurred between livelli di inquadramento, that is, job titles defined by national industry‐wide collective bargaining institutions, for which specific minimum wages apply. We conclude that the underlying market forces determining wage inequality have been largely channelled into the tight tracks set by the centralized system of industrial relations.     

‘Fair Work’ and the Modernization of Australian Labour Standards: A Case of Institutional Plasticity Entrenching Deepening Wage Inequality

Australia was long recognized for its relatively compressed wage structure. From the 1940s to the 1970s this was associated with a comprehensive regime of ‘award‐based’ minimum wages. Since the 1980s, this has been subjected to comprehensive ‘modernization’. After three decades of reform and in the most supportive economic environment in the OECD, Australian wage inequality has deepened. Although multiple political‐economic forces have been at play, the evolution of Australia's labour standards regime is an example of ‘institutional plasticity’ whereby the purpose and operations of wage‐setting institutions not only evolves but can actually be inverted over time.     

Minimum Cash Wages,Tipped Restaurant Workers,and Poverty

This is the first study to examine the effect of increases in the tipped minimum cash wage—the wage employers must pay to tipped employees—on poverty. Using March Current Population Survey data (1988–2014), we find that tipped minimum cash wage increases are associated with declines in the risk of a tipped restaurant worker living in a poor family (elasticities around –0.2). However, we find little evidence of poverty‐alleviating effects when using the household rather than the family as the sharing unit. This result is consistent with evidence that a substantial share of tipped workers who live in a poor family live in a nonpoor household with persons unrelated by blood, marriage, or adoption who contribute to the household's income. Furthermore, we find that tipped minimum cash wage hikes are associated with increases in the risk of a younger, less‐educated individual living in a poor family or household. Adverse labor demand effects that redistribute income among low‐skilled individuals drive these results. We conclude that raising the tipped minimum cash wage is a poorly targeted policy to deliver income to poor restaurant workers.     

Wages Councils: Was There a Case for Abolition?

The 1993 Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Act removed the remaining minimum wage protection for some 2.5 million low paid workers by abolishing the last 26 UK Wages Councils. The Government's case for abolition rested on three key arguments: (1) minimum wages do little to alleviate poverty since most covered workers do not live in poor households; (2) when in operation, minimum wages reduced employment in covered industries; (3) the problems of poverty that the wages councils were set up to deal with in 1909 are not relevant in today's labour market. In this paper we address each of these points in turn. We find that: (a) 50 per cent of families with at least one earner being paid wages council rates come from the poorest 20 per cent of families; (b) the existing evidence suggests that abolishing the Wages Councils is unlikely to create jobs; (c) the widening earnings distribution in the UK means that low pay is an increasingly important determinant of poverty. If anything, there appears to be an increasing need for minimum wage legislation in the UK.     

Marketing executives' perceptions of equitable salary increases

Employees' perceptions of fair and equitable salary increases is the subject of this article. Factors hypothesized to be the major determinants of the “perceived amount of pay that should be received” in Lawler's model of pay satisfaction are employed as predictor variables in a multiple regression equation context to explain the observed variation in executives' perceptions of fair and equitable salary increases. A national sample of industrial marketing executives were surveyed. A significant relationship was observed between employees perceptions of fair and equitable salary increases and a number of perceived personal job input and job demands related variables, current salary and wage history, and perceived non-monetary outcomes which are theorized in Lawler's model to be among the major determinants of the perceived amount of pay that should be received.     

职业经理人的甜蜜点

民企的诱惑力,正在一点点地逼近甚至超越跨国公司。2008年5月15日,福建新华都集团总裁兼CEO唐骏从重庆飞抵北京,接受本刊记者的专访。这一天距离其以引发轰动的10亿元薪酬加盟新华都正好一个月。谈到这第一个月的工作,唐骏的神情疲惫中透着兴奋,"很充实,特别特别地忙!"他说。看来,     

Salary Distribution and Collective Bargaining Agreements: A Case Study of the NBA

Traditional non‐sports unions attempt to institutionalize pay between workers by reducing productivity‐related differences in wages and increasing pay differences based on seniority and other non‐productivity‐related characteristics. Recent changes made to the collective bargaining agreements of the NBA have mirrored those of unions that are more traditional. The purpose of this article is to analyze how the changes made in the bargaining agreements of the NBA affect the salary distributions of players over time.     

The Effect of Mentorship and Sex-Role Style on Male-Female Earnings

The women in management literature contend that mentorship and sex-role style affect women's career success and ultimately earnings. We use data from the public accounting profession (N = 833) and a human capital wage decomposition model to examine the effect of mentorship and sex-role style on male-female wages and wage differentials. The results suggest that career mentorship modestly increases only women's earnings. However, sex-role style was found to significantly interact with gender to affect earnings and earnings differentials.     

Race,Compensation and Contract Length in the NBA: 2001–2002*

We study race and pay in the NBA for 2001–2002. For players who were neither free agents nor on rookie scale contracts, there were large, statistically significant ceteris paribus nonwhite shortfalls in salary, total compensation, and contract duration. But for players under the rookie salary scale (first‐round draft picks) and free agents, race effects were small and insignificant. These results suggest discrimination against marginal nonwhite players.     

最低工资标准、劳动力素质与FDI

本文利用我国30个省区2000～2014年的面板数据，分投资地区和投资类型考察了最低工资标准、劳动力素质对FDI流入规模的影响。研究发现：最低工资上涨对FDI流入规模呈现正U型影响；最低工资上涨通过提高劳动力素质增大FDI的流入规模。在东部地区，最低工资上涨对FDI流入规模呈现倒U型影响；而在中西部地区，最低工资上涨对FDI流入规模呈现正U型影响。最低工资上涨通过提高劳动力素质，增大了劳动密集型和资本密集型FDI的流入规模；而对技术密集型FDI的流入没有影响。本文的研究成果可为中国当前的最低工资制度、人才发展战略以及“引进来”战略的调整提供参考依据。     

Measuring the Union–Nonunion Wage Gap Using Propensity Score Matching

This paper examines the union wage effect among private sector wage and salary workers using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data. We estimate the average union premium by utilizing semi (non) parametric matching techniques, as well as by linear regression model. Our analysis reveals: (1) conditioning linearly on covariates understates the union wage effect. In addition, matching results under the alternative support conditions indicate that selection on unobservables has at most a modest impact on average. (2) Log wage estimations lead to an overstatement of the union wage effect. Solving these problems yields the union membership premium as 21.5 percent.     

Earnings Growth Among Young Less-Educated Business Owners

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), I examine the earnings patterns of young less-educated business owners and make comparisons with young less-educated wage/salary workers. Estimates from fixed-effects earnings regressions indicate that the self-employed experience faster earnings growth on average than wage/salary workers after a few initial years of slower growth. I also find some evidence suggesting that a relatively high percentage of less-educated business owners, especially men, experience either rapid earnings growth or large annual losses.     

Public- and Private-Sector Occupational Pay Structures

Data from a representative sample of wage and salary workers are used to estimate wage equations that provide for direct estimates of the differences between public and private occupational pay structures. The results show that at the state and local levels of government in particular, the public/private wage differential tends to decline as occupational skill requirements increase. Public employees who work on jobs unique to the public sector are paid a wage premium. There is little support for the idea that degree of union coverage in the private sector affects public wages for an occupation.     

Metropolitan Wage Levels of Less‐Educated Workers: 1986 to 1999

This work investigates determinants of metropolitan wage levels for workers with a high school education or less. It estimates their wage levels as a function of four factors: labor demand, industry mix, unionization, and the minimum wage. Labor demand and union strength influence wage levels most. The minimum wage and industry mix play smaller roles, although the minimum wage is the second most influential factor for men and women who did not complete high school. From 1990 to 1999, metropolitan wage levels exhibit considerable persistence, though persistence declines over this period.     

The British National Minimum Wage

Great Britain has had statutory regulation of minimum pay for much of this century but never previously had a national minimum wage (NMW). This paper outlines the history of minimum wage regulation culminating in 1997 with the establishment of the Low Pay Commission (LPC) and the introduction of the NMW in 1999. The main issues considered by the LPC were the definition of the NMW, the rate itself, and what to do about younger workers. Although there is general agreement that minimum wage systems reduce wage inequality, their impact on the distribution of household income is more controversial. Evidence presented suggests the NMW may have a more egalitarian impact on household incomes than is sometimes asserted. The Report of the LPC is only the beginning of the story. Responses to it were generally favourable; parliamentary regulations are needed to translate the recommendations into law; the NMW has to be enforced and evaluated. This necessary follow-up to the Report is discussed in the concluding sections.     

One Hundred Years of British Minimum Wage Legislation

The Trade Boards Act 1909 was a landmark in the development of minimum wage regulation in Britain and around the world. Although their powers were limited, the trade boards had immediate and tangible effects in terms of raising living standards, and over time they became a core part of the system of state support for collective wage determination. While influential overseas, the wages councils (as the trade boards became after 1945) were eventually seen as providing only a partial solution to the problem of low pay. In the 1980s, their powers were reduced under the influence of deregulatory labour market policies, prior to their abolition in 1993. The British national minimum wage ('NMW'), which was introduced in 1998, despite appearances, is not a universal national minimum of the kind which the Webbs and other Fabian writers argued for a century ago. Notwithstanding a growing consensus that the supposed negative economic effects of the minimum wage have not been borne out by the experience of the NMW, public policy has yet to take fully on board its potential benefits, including the reduction of social costs and the promotion of social partnership.     

Taking a hit to save the world? Employee participation in a corporate social initiative

Research Summary: Companies often justify their corporate social initiatives by citing talent management benefits. We examine the extent of, and the reasons for, employee interest in such an initiative in a global management consulting firm. We find a large fraction of employees to be interested in participation in the initiative even when participation requires a personal sacrifice in the form of a salary cut. However, this interest is driven not just by prosocial motivation: Expectations regarding private benefits, such as improved career prospects from new skills acquired, also play a role. Considerations of social impact and private benefits are equally salient when no salary cut is required, but private considerations become more prominent when participating employees are asked to accept a salary cut. Managerial Summary: Many companies are moving from stand‐alone corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects to social initiatives integrated into strategy. Providing employees with the opportunity to participate in such initiatives is said to help attract, motivate and retain talent. In this study, carried out in collaboration with a management consulting firm, we examine how much and why employees value participation in a corporate social initiative. Based on interviews and survey data, we find that employees are not only interested in, but often even willing to accept, a temporary salary cut for the opportunity. However, altruistic motivation is not the only driver of this interest: Employees also expect and value the possibility that the experience would lead to private benefits, such as developing skills likely to enhance their career prospects.