The Union Relative Wage Effect for Academic Librarians

This note investigates the impact of labor unions on the starting salaries of academic librarians. Using data collected from members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and employing standard ordinary least squares (OLS) and seemingly unrelated regressions techniques, the union relative wage gap was estimated annually over the 1989–1998 time period. Three important results were found. First, unionized academic librarians received a positive and significant union wage premium throughout most of the decade studied. Second, this wage premium declined in magnitude over time following the trend in the economy as a whole. Lastly, by the end of the sample period, the wage effect had disappeared and was no longer significantly different from zero.     

Where the Grass Is Greener: Voluntary Turnover and Wage Premiums

Standard economic and compensation theories suggest that voluntary turnover should decline when a firm pays wages that are higher than those of its competitors. Turnover behavior in the State of California's Civil Service, however, does not support this prediction. Using a fixed-effects estimator to control for job-specific characteristics, I find that the wages California pays relative to those of its competitors has little or no effect on turnover. In addition, estimates of the elasticity of turnover with respect to alternative wages indicate that higher wage rates do not pay for themselves through lower turnover costs. Instead, the absolute wage level and wage growth have large effects. In other words, it appears that workers are less likely to quit jobs that pay high wages and have larger wage increases no matter how their wages compare with those paid by other employers.     

Trade Union Decline and Union Wage Effects in Australia

Union density in Australia fell precipitously in the 1990s. This study investigates how union wage effects may have changed as a result. The findings from 1993 data suggest that union/nonunion wage differentials were very small, especially among workers in high-density industries. By 2001 the overall union wage effect had increased significantly; however, the union/nonunion wage differential was no longer correlated with union density at the industry level.     

The Impact of Human Resource Policies on Union Organizing

Using newly available data from the Conference Board on employer human resource policies, certification election outcomes, and union organization of new company facilities, we find that the logic of "union substitution" efforts by employers is supported: Companies having or encouraging employee communication and participation programs, including nonunion grievance procedures, are more successful in maintaining nonunion status than are companies without such programs. However, certain human resource policies, such as work sharing (as an alternative to layoffs), may actually enhance chances of union success.     

Does Technological Change Affect Union Wage Bargaining Power?

This paper uses data from a survey of Canadian establishments to consider the effects of computer-based process technological change on wage bargaining power. The analysis finds that union wage differentials for blue-collar workers as a whole were lower among firms that had introduced process computerization than among those that had not. The relationship between technological change and the union wage premium differed, however, for skilled and unskilled labour. The union wage effect was lower for skilled workers and higher for general manual occupations in the sub-sample where process computerization had occurred. Explanations for these observed relationships appear to involve both economic and institutional components.     

Union Wage Effects in Nevada's Hotel and Casino Industry

I use the significant union presence in Las Vegas's hotel, gaming, andrecreation (HGR) industry juxtaposed to the near absence of unions in Reno's HGR sector to study union wage effects. I find wages of highly unionized occupations in Las Vegas's HGR industry to be significantly higher than wages of identical occupations in Reno. Furthermore, I detect little impact from Las Vegas's HGR unions on wages in the wholesale and retail trade (WRT) industry, a much less unionized sector.     

Compensating Wage Differentials in the Union and Nonunion Sectors

This paper tests for the existence of structurally different compensating payments in the union and nonunion sectors of the economy. Significant differences may stem from the different mechanisms by which such payments are determined: markets are the primary mechanism in the nonunion sector, while Political processes play a major role in the union sector. The empirical results provide tentative support for the structural differences hypothesis; They also reveal an absence of positive and significant compensating payments in nonunion labor markets.     

The Impact of the National Minimum Wage in Small Firms

The introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) had potentially significant implications for small firms. Orthodox economic theory predicts adverse consequences, though institutional analysis points to potential efficiency as well as fairness effects. Using longitudinal data on 55 firms, this paper examines the impact of the NMW in small firms in clothing manufacture and hotel and catering. Different patterns of adjustment were observed, explained by both size and sector characteristics. Overall, the impact of the NMW was mediated by the informality of employment relations in the small firm.     

The Impact of Internal Union Politics on the 1981 UMWA Strike

This paper explicitly addresses the role internal union politics played in the rank-and-file rejection of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA)-Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA) contract in March 1981. The strike decision is viewed as having both political and economic components and as being rooted in the specific history and traditions of the UMWA. Using a unique data set, a statistically significant relationship between the vote for challenger Richard Trumka and the vote for the strike is found. Miners struck for many reasons in 1981. This study concludes that one of those reasons was to protest the union leadership.     

Non‐Standard Time Wage Premiums and Employment Effects: Evidence from an Australian Natural Experiment

We examine the effect of increasing Sunday wage premiums on retail industry employment in Australia, exploiting a quasi‐experimental policy change across two neighbouring states. Using both aggregate and individual‐level data, we adopt a difference‐in‐difference regression framework to estimate the causal impact of the policy change on employment outcomes. We find no evidence of changes in the total number of employees, and no effect on hours per employee in the years following the policy implementation. However, there appeared to be a decline in hours per employee in the announcement year of the policy change. Overall, it appears that in an industry dominated by part‐time and casual employment, any adjustment to the new Sunday wage rates occurred principally through flexibility in hours, rather than in the number of employees.     

Market Structure, Strike Activity, and Union Wage Settlements

We attempt a synthesis of the industrial relations market structure hypothesis with the modern asymmetric information theory of wage and strike outcomes. The industrial relations literature contains arguments indicating that wage settlements should be positively related to the degree of product market sales concentration and the degree of product market coverage by the union. In our empirical analysis of the periods 1970–1980 (strikes) and 1976–1980 (wages), we find that the relation between trade-adjusted sales concentration and wage settlements is positive at low and intermediate levels of concentration but negative at the highest levels of concentration. The relation is always negative for strike probabilities. We also find that the trade-adjusted per cent of the product market covered by the same union and the percentage covered by other unions are positively related to both wage settlements and strike probabilities.     

Occupational Regulation in the European Union: Coverage and Wage Effects

We present the first EU‐wide study on the prevalence and labour market impact of occupational regulation in the European Union. Drawing on a new EU Survey of Regulated Occupations, we find that licensing affects about 22 per cent of workers in the European Union, although there is significant variability across member states and occupations. On average, licensing is associated with a 4 per cent higher hourly wage. Using decomposition techniques we show that rent capture accounts for one‐third of this effect and the remainder is attributed to signalling. We find considerable heterogeneity in the wage gains by occupation and level of educational attainment. Finally, occupational licensing increases wage inequality. After accounting for composition effects, licensing increases the standard deviation of wages by about 0.02 log points.