Inequality and Union Membership: The Influence of Relative Earnings and Inequality Attitudes

Using surveys from the International Social Survey Programme covering the period 1985–2002 for seven European countries (West and East Germany, Sweden, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands and Great Britain), we examine the effect of relative earnings on union membership and show that union density is higher among workers in the intermediate earnings group than among low or high earners. Next, we examine the association of inequality attitudes with union membership and demonstrate that union membership is not only motivated by instrumental considerations related to relative earnings, but also by normative concerns about inequality. We interpret our findings suggesting that rising earnings inequality is in itself a source of union decline.     

Union Effects on Earnings Dispersion in Australia, 1986–1994

In Australia a large decline in union density has occurred since the mid-1970s. This paper examines the effect of the decline in union density on the dispersion of earnings in Australia between 1986 and 1994. Changes in union density are found to have increased earnings dispersion for male employees over this period, but do not appear to have had a strong effect on earnings dispersion for female employees. The main cause of changes in earnings dispersion for both male and female employees has been an increase in the dispersion of earnings of non-union employees.     

Decentralization of Collective Agreements and Rising Wage Inequality in Israel

This paper presents a systematic analysis of the decentralization of the Israeli system of collective bargaining and its contribution to the rise in earnings inequality. We quantitatively analyze all collective agreements that were signed between 1957 and 2003, and present the scale, scope, and timing of five dimensions of decentralization. The findings suggest that decentralization started in the mid‐1970s when national agreements were less likely to be extended to nonunion employees; it was intensified in 1975–1980 when nationwide industrial agreements were supplanted by occupational and local agreements. Decentralization became fully consolidated by 1987 when peak‐level agreements covering the entire private sector were no longer signed. We then present evidence (including time‐series analyses that control for union density and macroeconomic indicators) that the process of decentralization, especially the decline in the use of extension orders and the proliferation of local agreements, explains a significant part of the sharp rise in earnings inequality in Israel during 1970–2003.     

Unionism in the United States and Other Advanced OECD Countries

In this paper we compare the changing pattern of unionization in OECD countries, reviewing existing evidence and presenting new information on union-nonunion differentials in labor market outcomes in these countries. Our principal source of information are the micro data files of the International Social Survey Programme cross-country surveys of 1985–87. Our analysis shows that U.S. unions have a larger effect on wages than on other outcomes than unions in other OECD countries, and we argue that the high union premium in the United States has contributed to the decline in union density and divergence of the US. industrial relations system     

Erosion of the Ghent System and Union Membership Decline: Lessons from Finland

Union density declined in Finland by more than 10 percentage points in less than 10 years. This paper analyses the reasons behind the decline, using micro data from the 1990s. According to our results, the changes in the composition of the labour force and the changes in the labour market explain only about a quarter of this decline. The main reason for the decline appears to be the erosion of the Ghent system, due to the emergence of an independent unemployment insurance fund that provides unemployment insurance without requiring union membership. We also find that the decline in the union density can be attributed to the declining inclination of the cohorts born after the early 1960s to become union members.     

Trade Union Growth and Decline in Asia

We examine trends in union density and union influence in several Asian countries. Though we find variation in union density, all countries experienced union decline in the 1990s. Asian countries also vary on our new union influence measure. We use a logics of action framework to examine the institutional context surrounding union growth, decline and influence in each country. Based on our examination of how these institutional contexts are changing, and what we know about the strategies of unions, we are not hopeful regarding the near term prospects for reversing union decline.     

Long‐Term Earnings Inequality,Earnings Instability and Temporary Employment in Spain: 1993–2000

This article provides a longitudinal perspective on changes in Spanish male earnings inequality for the period 1993–2000 by decomposing the earnings covariance structure into its permanent and transitory parts. Cross‐sectional earnings inequality of male full‐time employees falls over the second half of the 1990s. Such decline was determined by a decrease in earnings instability and an increase of the permanent earnings component. Given the marked decline in temporary employment over the sample period, we also examine the effect of the type of contract on earnings variance components and find that workers on a fixed‐term contract face, on average, more instability than workers on a permanent contract. This evidence suggests that the decline in temporary employment is responsible for the decreasing earnings instability.     

The Relative Effects of Unionism on the Earnings Distributions of Women and Men

This study examines the differential effects of union density on the degree of earnings inequality among women and among men. Our results suggest an equalizing impact of union density for all men and for both men and women who work year-round and full time. Union density does not appear to equalize and may even contribute to a disequalization of the earnings distribution for all women.     

Rising Wage Inequality, Returns to Education and Labour Market Institutions: Evidence from Ireland

Institutional factors and increased supply of skilled labour have been advanced in an effort to explain why some countries have experienced smaller increases in earnings dispersion and in returns to education than the USA and the UK. Ireland has had a highly centralized wage bargaining structure and the supply of skilled labour has increased sharply in recent years; hence, relatively little change in earnings dispersion might be expected. We compare the distribution of earnings in Ireland in 1987 and 1994 and find a surprisingly large growth in earnings dispersion. In addition, using a decomposition technique, we find that much of this is accounted for by increasing returns to measured.     

Internet access and its role on educational inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study investigates the determinants of Internet access and its effect on educational inequality in OECD countries during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic. The spatial panel data model is used to include the neighborhood in the model relating to educational inequality. The findings from the study reveal that despite the increase in Internet access during the Covid-19 period, the response to the pandemic has caused education inequalities. Furthermore, economic development indicators are effective in increasing Internet access and reducing educational inequality. Finally, the study shows that, as improvements in income levels can increase Internet access, which results in a reduction in educational inequality.     

Why Have Workers Stopped Joining Unions? The Rise in Never‐Membership in Britain

This paper tracks the rise in the percentage of employees who have never become union members (‘never‐member’) since the early 1980s and shows that it is the reduced likelihood of ever becoming a member, rather than the haemorrhaging of existing members, that is behind the decline in overall union membership in Britain. We estimate the determinants of ‘never‐membership’ and consider how much of the rise can be explained by structural change in the labour market and how much by change in preferences among employees.     

Your Money or Your Life: Changing Job Quality in OECD Countries

Job quality may usefully be thought of as depending on both job values (how much workers care about different job outcomes) and the job outcomes themselves. Here, both cross‐section and panel data are used to examine changes in job quality in OECD countries during the 1990s. Despite rising wages and falling hours of work, overall job satisfaction is either stable or declining. These movements are neither due to changes in the type of workers nor because of changes in their job values. Some pieces of evidence point to stress and hard work as being strong candidates for what has gone wrong with employees’ jobs. We find evidence of increasing inequality in a number of job outcomes. Some groups of workers have done better than others: the young and the highly educated have been insulated against downward movements in job quality, and there is tentative evidence that trade unions may have protected their members against adverse job outcomes.     

Where Do Unions Add Value? Predominant Organizing Principle,Union Strength and Manufacturing Productivity Growth in the OECD

This article deploys comparative historical data on 14 OECD countries to examine the significance of predominant union structure for the impact of union strength on the (medium‐term) growth in hourly labour productivity in manufacturing. The analysis shows that where craft and general unionism predominates, union strength has a deleterious impact on productivity growth. Where enterprise unionism predominates, union strength is irrelevant. However, where industrial unionism predominates, union strength promotes productivity growth. These effects exist independently of established economic influences on aggregate productivity growth. The findings are interpreted as displaying the importance of the character of the governance that unions provide for their productivity impact.     

Non-farm income,gender, and inequality: evidence from rural Ghana and Uganda

This paper examines how the distribution of earnings in rural Ghana and Uganda differs by income type and by gender. We find that non-farm earnings contribute to rising inequality, but that lower income groups also benefit due to strong overall growth in non-farm earnings. The inequality-inducing effect is driven by self-employment income; wage income, on the other hand, reduces inequality. The tendency of non-farm income to contribute to inequality is greater among female-headed households for whom self-employment is important and non-farm opportunities more constrained. Determinants of non-farm income are estimated and appear to be strongly related to location, education, age, and distance to market. Estimates of the linkages to agriculture in Ghana are weaker than expected, showing the non-farm sector to be functioning more as an alternative activity to agriculture than as a complement.     

The Impact of Union Experience on Job Satisfaction

The relationship between union status and job satisfaction is commonly estimated without recognizing the heterogeneity of non‐union members. Many non‐union workers have experienced union jobs in the past while others have not, suggesting past estimations of the impact of unions on job satisfaction may miss a critical distinction. After separating non‐union members into those workers with and without union experience, this article shows that job satisfaction increases significantly for first‐time union workers, but decreases as workers accumulate experience in the union. Finally, after leaving the union jobs, worker job satisfaction recovers but does so only as the time since unionization grows.     

Decomposing the Sources of Earnings Inequality: Assessing the Role of Reallocation

This study exploits longitudinal employer–employee matched data from the U.S. Census Bureau to investigate the contribution of worker and firm reallocation to changes in earnings inequality within and across industries between 1992 and 2003. We find that factors that cannot be measured using standard cross‐sectional data, including the entry and exit of firms and the sorting of workers across firms, are important sources of changes in earnings distributions over time. Our results also suggest that the dynamics driving changes in earnings inequality are heterogeneous across industries.     

What did unions do for union workers during the COVID-19 pandemic?

This research examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on labour market outcomes of union workers, based on nationally representative data. I employ the difference-in-difference estimation to identify the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the employment, labour earnings and other labour market outcomes of union workers, relative to non-union workers. I find that, compared to non-union workers, union workers experienced greater job security, and the pre-pandemic union wage premium remained largely unchanged during the pandemic. There exists a large heterogeneity in the union effect on employment and real wages by worker characteristic. I also find that union workers, compared to non-union workers, were less likely to work remotely but more likely to receive pay for hours not worked due to COVID-19. The results suggest that unions provided workers with employment stability and an economic buffer during the pandemic-led recession.     

Conflict or cooperation? Exploring the relationship between cooperative institutions and robotisation

Robotization of production challenges the status-quo in the economy, some win, while others lose out. Literature has argued that automation causes redistribution, both between capital and labour as within either category. We also know that many economies have chosen to adopt cooperative institutions to negotiate the negative by-products of such economic changes. What is, however, less clear is how such institutions influence rates of automation themselves. This article contributes to this debate by conducting a panel analysis of sectoral robotization rates and cooperative institutions in 25 OECD countries between 1993 and 2017 using an original institutional indicator. The findings suggest that aside from simply redistributing the costs and benefits of automation throughout the productive sector, cooperative institutions also meaningfully predict higher levels of robot density, showing that more institutionalized economies do not lag behind in terms of automation. What is more, these institutions also seem to co-determine the rates of robotization occurring during recessions.     

Are There Gains to Joining a Union? Evidence from Mexico

Union density in Mexico has been in decline since the 1980s. This article provides evidence on the worker compensation gains (losses) made by males upon joining (leaving) a union. These are estimated using a nationally representative labour market survey covering 2005q1–2016q1. The transitions between non‐union and union status are investigated using a difference‐in‐difference estimator. The findings suggest that joining a union is associated with modest wage gains, contrary to what the literature has shown for most industrialized nations. However, in contrast to this, some union leavers are found to experience a decrease in wages. This article also contributes to the wider literature by providing the first estimates of the longitudinal gain (loss) associated with joining (leaving) a union with respect to non‐wage benefits. The findings show joining (leaving) a union increases (decreases) the probability of being in receipt of legally guaranteed benefits such as bonuses and paid holidays. This suggests that although union density may be in decline, unions still have an important role to play in voicing worker's preferences with respect to compensation and ensuring that employers comply with the law.     

Measuring Trade Union Democracy: The Case of the UK Civil and Public Services Association

The Civil and Public Services Association (CPSA) has experienced a substantial number of organizational changes over the last 25 years, both as a voluntary response to membership concerns and to comply with legislative demands. Have these changes made the CPSA more or less ‘democratic’? An answer to this question must acknowledge that individuals interpret ‘trade union democracy’ in different ways. This paper evaluates the changes in the CPSA’s organizational structure and internal decision‐making procedures according to the emphasis of four models of trade union democracy: liberal pluralism, grass‐roots activism, individual accountability and consumer trade unionism.