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

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 176

Classification and Topics

• 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

Contributors, Places and Time

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

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/21019
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:46 AM CET