Arbeitspapier

Industrial Relations and the Wage Differentials between Skilled and Unskilled Blue-Collar Workers within Establishments: An Empirical Analysis with Data of Manufacturing Firms

Increased wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers is a stylized fact, which can be observed in many developed countries. Among the explanations advanced for this phenomenon is the increasing globalization, a skill-biased technical progress, restructuring of the firms, and last but not least, a decreasing importance of industrial relations institutions. In the paper, we investigate in a three-step procedure with firms? data whether the latter determinant is influential. We control for the other relevant explanations and split industrial relations into three components - coverage of collective bargaining, existence of a works council, and union density – within a four-equation model. We find an insignificant influence of the union density. A Works council compresses the wage differentials between skilled and unskilled blue-collar workers while coverage is effective in the opposite direction. The latter two effects nearly offset each other.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 176

Classification
Wirtschaft
Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
Subject
Wage differentials
skilled and unskilled labour
union density
works councils
coverage of collective bargaining
Lohnstruktur
Qualifikation
Facharbeiter
Ungelernte Arbeitskräfte
Arbeitsbeziehungen
Tarifpolitik
Betriebsrat
Gewerkschaftlicher Organisationsgrad
Schätzung
Deutschland

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Hübler, Olaf
Meyer, Wolfgang
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
(where)
Bonn
(when)
2000

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:46 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Hübler, Olaf
  • Meyer, Wolfgang
  • Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Time of origin

  • 2000

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