The implications of the national minimum wage for training in small firms

This article investigates the extent to which small firms' training practices have altered since the introduction of the national minimum wage (NMW). Low pay is particularly widespread among small firms and they are thus likely to have been disproportionately affected by the NMW. Drawing on survey data collected from 258 establishments, the study provides information about training practices and identifies the steps that employers have taken to offset the impact of the NMW. The study also assesses the extent to which firms have made use of lower ‘development’ rates for young workers and new adult recruits, and whether this has been associated with an increase in training activity. The findings suggest that the NMW has provided a positive boost to training in some cases, although this has primarily come about as a result of efforts by firms to offset increases in labour costs, as opposed to take‐up of the development rate.     

Employment,Inequality and the UK National Minimum Wage over the Medium‐Term*

We assess the impact of the national minimum wage (NMW) on employment and inequality in the UK over the decade since its introduction. We evaluate its effects in each year, using an incremental differences‐in‐differences (IDiD) estimator. Identification is based on variation in the bite of the NMW across local labour markets and the different sized year on year up‐ratings. We find that an increased bite of the NMW is associated with falls in lower tail wage inequality. While the average employment effect over the entire period is broadly neutral, there are small but significant positive NMW effects from 2003 onwards.     

The impact of the National Minimum Wage in low‐wage sectors: does the Earnings Top‐up Evaluation study add to our understanding?

Recent work investigating the possible impact of the introduction of the UK National Minimum Wage (NMW) in April 1999 has focused on the analysis of care homes, a sector particularly associated with low‐wage employment. In this article we attempt to add to these findings by utilising the Earnings Top‐up Evaluation (ETUE) survey which was carried out in 1996, 1997 and 1999, and aimed to over‐sample establishments operating in low‐wage sectors. Initially, we utilise the panel element of the ETUE to carry out a similar analysis to that adopted for the care homes data. However, in addition to this ‘establishment‐level’ analysis, we also utilise information on wages and employment in three non‐managerial skill groups, within this panel of establishments, to carry out an analysis at the level of the skill group. In this second set of analyses we are able to reject the null hypotheses of parameter insignificance, identifying a negative employment effect of the 1999 NMW, although this is only true of one of our indicators of NMW impact and its magnitude is small. In the conclusion to the article, we discuss our results in light of the findings from other similar studies.     

Efficiency Wages and the Economic Effects of the Minimum Wage: Evidence from a Low‐Wage Labour Market*

This article exploits a natural experiment provided by the 1999 introduction of the UK National Minimum Wage (NMW) to test for efficiency wage considerations in a low‐wage sector, the UK residential care homes industry. The empirical results provide support to the wage‐supervision trade‐off prediction of the shirking model and suggest that the NMW may have operated as an efficiency wage in the care homes sector, leading to a reduction in supervision costs. These findings can explain earlier evidence suggesting that although the NMW introduction increased wages dramatically in the care homes sector, it generated only moderate negative employment effects.     

The rhetoric and reality: employer responses to the national minimum wage

The national minimum wage (NMW) was introduced to Britain in April 1999 amid much speculation. This paper considers the political reasons for introducing the NMW and the economic effects of doing so. It also addresses the issue of the additional costs created by the NMW and the strategies adopted by employers to defray them. The paper provides evidence from the hotel sector that suggests some wage gains but no significant disemployment effects. The value of conventional labour market models as predictive tools is questioned.     

Adjusting to the national minimum wage: constraints and incentives to change in six low‐paying sectors

Interest in the national minimum wage (NMW) includes not only its direct impact on employment and wages, but also its indirect impact on organisational performance resulting from a reorientation of employer behaviour with regard to employment practices and product market competition. Drawing on data from small firms in six low‐paying sectors, this article identifies three key constraints that have undermined the possible effect of the NMW in generating a virtuous cycle between employment practices and product market approach. These constraints relate to product market conditions, employer norms and labour market institutions (especially training).     

The problem with pay flexibility: changing pay practices in the UK health sector

This paper critically assesses models and policies of pay flexibility as applied to the public sector. Examination of the arguments for greater pay flexibility across three dimensions - external labour market flexibility, organizational flexibility, and macroeconomic flexibility - reveals a number of weaknesses, rooted in a failure to problematize the conflicting motives for greater pay flexibility in the context of pressures internal and external to the organization. An alternative 'model' of changing pay systems is developed and applied to the case of the UK health sector where there have been attempts to introduce various forms of flexible local pay arrangements. Drawing on interviews conducted during the mid-1990s with personnel and HRM managers at fifteen NHS Trusts, a number of issues are examined, such as: the impact of differential external labour market conditions of workers on the development of strategies designed to tie local pay to improved performance; the introduction of performance-related pay as a means to institutionalize wider earnings differentials within the organization; and the potential conflict between pressures to link local pay structures with local labour market conditions, on the one hand, and customary employee-held norms that link pay to occupational skills and professional status, on the other.     

Measuring Electoral Control

If voters do not pay attention to whatrepresentatives do, representatives are not stimulatedto be responsive. Therefore, electoral control, theextent to which voters base their vote on thebehaviour of representatives is, at least potentially,an important variable in the explanation of thebehaviour of representatives. Moreover, electoralcontrol seems to be an important variable from anormative point of view. In this article four ways tomeasure the minimal level of local electoral controlusing the outcomes of local elections (electoralstatistics) are presented. The general idea behind themeasures is fairly simple. If local elections arecompletely determined by nonlocal factors, then thelosses and gains of local divisions of nationalparties from one local election to another are`identical' across municipalities. A deviation fromthis pattern can be interpreted as an indication ofthe minimal level of local electoral control in aspecific municipality. The measures are externallyvalidated using data from a survey among council members.     

Modernising pay in the UK public services: trends and implications

The emerging character of the UK government's public sector pay reforms during the second and third (New) Labour terms of office is reviewed and contextualised. Three settings are examined where pay reform has been actively employed – with the accent on harmonisation, simplification and devolution of practice, with the express intention of restoring public service workforce morale, while improving services to clients – namely, local government, the National Health Service and the Higher Education sector. The evidence is interpreted as illustrating undoubted change, but also significant areas where progress has been less than intended, measured against the government's original programme goals. Equal pay considerations appear to have dominated all three projects reviewed: the failure to date of public sector managements to capitalise on opportunities the new pay architecture affords them to change local working practices may be attributed to a combination of factors discussed in the article. These have given rise to tensions as efforts have been pursued to transplant private sector pay techniques, somewhat hastily in some cases, without due consideration of the institutional context within which public services and proximal institutions function.     

Decentralisation of Pay In the Nhs: Diagnosis and Prognosis

This article analyses why some NHS trusts have departed from national arrangements and adopted a local pay regime, while others have not. It finds that the primary determinant is the attitude of management, particularly the chief executive. This is value driven and not a pragmatic response to the labour market. Although a healthy financial position is a necessary condition for a trust pay regime, it is not an adequate causative explanation. Moreover, while management sets the agenda, the pace, manner and extent of change, are tempered by the cohesiveness and vigour of the staff-side and the power of the medical profession. It also suggests that in some trusts more immediately pressing priorities have taken precedence over the government initiative on local pay bargaining, so it will be some time before fully fledged pay systems are adopted.     

地方医学院校教育教学质量监控的探索与实践

地方医学院校教育教学质量的高低直接影响着医学人才的培养质量。在教育型大学模式逐渐向教育-研究型大学甚至研究型大学模式转变过程中,本科生教学质量水平受到很多因素的影响有逐渐下滑的趋势,这在教学评估后体现的尤为突出。因此,建立并贯彻执行一套完整科学的教育教学质量监控体系,多渠道、多层次保障教学质量水平,这也是地方高校需要注意并研究的课题。     

财政分权对三次产业影响的区域差异实证分析

由于"用脚投票"机制的存在,才促使地方政府注重设计自己辖区的税收和公共服务的组合,同时居民可以根据自己的偏好自由的选择不同的地方政府,可以充分的在不同辖区间自由的流动,无论是地方政府行为的变化还是人力、资本和技术等要素的流动都对地区的三次产业有着重要影响。本文通过设置财政分权、开放程度和经济发展水平三个计量指标,采用1997-2009年的省(直辖市,自治区)级面板数据,进行了财政分权、开放程度和经济发展水平对三次产业影响的实证检验。结果发现,财政分权、开放程度和经济发展水平对三次产业有着显著的影响且存在着区域差异,通过比较分析,提出了几点促进区域间产业合理化的建议。     

金钱偏好：如何影响薪酬和薪酬满意度之间的关系？

本研究运用问卷调查法考察了薪酬和金钱偏好对薪酬满意度的四个方面（薪酬水平满意度、福利满意度、薪酬管理满意度、薪酬增长满意度）的不同影响。来自同一家企业的139名员工参加了调查,完成了金钱偏好和薪酬满意度问卷,并报告了他们的薪酬水平。在对139个员工样本的多元回归分析中发现：薪酬对福利满意度有显著的积极影响,而金钱偏好对薪酬水平满意度和薪酬增长满意度有显著的消极影响。进一步,又考察了金钱偏好对薪酬和薪酬满意度的四个维度之间关系的调节效应,发现：在低金钱偏好组中,薪酬对福利满意度和薪酬增长满意度有显著的积极影响;而在高金钱偏好组中,薪酬对四个薪酬满意度维度均没有显著影响。我们讨论了研究结果对管理实践的意义。     

Changing Pay Systems,Occupational Concentration and the Gender Pay Gap: Evidence from Australia and the UK

While aggregate level pay equity comparisons between Australia and the UK confirm expectations based on their different wage distributions and regulatory systems, observation of trends and occupational level analysis reveal additional complexity. Our analysis suggests the need for a multi‐faceted approach to closing the average gender pay gap.     

Premium,merger fees and the choice of investment banks: A simultaneous analysis

We analyze 635 US M&A transactions from 1985 to 2004. In contrast with prior research, we distinguish between the target and acquirer fees, and examine their independent effects on the level of the merger premium. The study provides evidence of a positive (negative) association between target (acquirer) fees and the level of the premium. It indicates that the reputation of investment banks affects the level of merger fees, but does not affect the level of the premium. The findings confirm the conflict of interests between target and acquirer firms where the investment banks’ efforts are positively related to shareholders’ interest. The study also finds that when acquirers pay higher fees than target firms, they pay lower premiums. The findings also imply that for the small proportion of mergers (13%) resulting in relatively large value gains for buying firms, an acquirer might be willing to pay large advisory fees even though this may result in a higher premium.     

基于团队的薪酬体系设计探讨

员工对薪酬体系的公平和风险感知是影响其态度和行为的关键因素。建立科学的绩效评价体系,依据职位层次和工作任务特点确定适当的变动薪酬激励强度,选择适合团队规模和绩效特点的团队绩效薪酬激励强度,以及与团队任务和团队成员特点相匹配的团队绩效薪酬分配规则,是基于团队的薪酬体系设计的核心。     

Opposition to unions in the non-union sector in Britain

Using data collected from over 1,000 individuals in 30 Finnish personnel funds, we study the links between pay knowledge, pay satisfaction and pay effectiveness. We find consistent evidence that higher levels of pay knowledge are associated with improved pay satisfaction and perceived pay effectiveness at the organizational level. We find that pay knowledge has an independent impact on organizational outcomes, rather than being mediated through pay satisfaction. Finally, comparing measures of actual pay knowledge and perceived pay knowledge, we find that the measures of actual knowledge were better connected to the outcomes. This last result suggests that to reliably estimate the relationship between pay knowledge and pay effectiveness researchers should prefer measures of actual knowledge.     

薪酬制度人力资源效用研究

本文从经济学角度研究在工资总成本支出一定的情况下,采用何种薪金机制可以使得员工的满意度与企业利润率的最大化,即选择正确的薪酬制度使得以固定的成本获取最大的产出。根据员工对不同薪酬制度下的满意度和工作热情建立模型,拟定了不同的薪酬制度即高底薪惩罚制度严格型和低底薪奖励制度完善型制度,通过设定得到薪金和效率相关关系,依据模型的分析得出员工在不同薪酬制度下,对工作热情及公司效益大小的数据进行比较分析,最后选出两者之间较优者作为制定薪酬制度的依据。