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Wage Flexibility under Sectoral Bargaining

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  • Card, David

    (University of California, Berkeley)

  • Cardoso, Ana Rute

    (IAE Barcelona (CSIC))

Abstract

Sectoral contracts in many European countries set wage floors for different occupation groups. In addition, employers often pay a wage premium (or wage cushion) to individual workers. We use administrative data from Portugal, linked to collective bargaining agreements, to study the interactions between wage floors and wage cushions and quantify the impact of sectoral wage floors. Although wages exhibit a "spike" at the wage floor, a typical worker receives a 20% premium over the floor, with larger cushions for older and better-educated workers and at higher-productivity firms. Cushions also allow wages to covary with firm-specific productivity, even within sectoral agreements. Contract negotiations tend to raise all wage floors proportionally, with increases that reflect average productivity growth among covered firms. As floors rise, however, cushions are compressed, leading to an average passthrough rate of only about 50%. We find no evidence of employment responses to floor increases. Finally, we use a series of counterfactual simulations to show that real wage reductions during the recent financial crisis arose through reductions in real wage floors, reductions in real cushions, and a re-allocation of workers to lower wage floors. Offsetting these effects was a rapid rise in education of new cohorts, which in the absence of other factors would have led to rising real wages.

Suggested Citation

  • Card, David & Cardoso, Ana Rute, 2021. "Wage Flexibility under Sectoral Bargaining," IZA Discussion Papers 14283, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14283
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    Cited by:

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    2. Jose Garcia‐Louzao & Marta Silva, 2024. "Coworker networks and the labor market outcomes of displaced workers: Evidence from Portugal," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 389-413, July.
    3. Pereira, João & Ramos, Raul & Martins, Pedro S., 2024. "Wage cyclicality and labour market institutions," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1469, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
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    6. Bustos, Emil, 2024. "Collectively Bargained Wages and Female Earnings: Evidence from Swedish Local Governments," Working Paper Series 1494, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    7. Reizer, Balázs, 2022. "Employment and Wage Consequences of Flexible Wage Components," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
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    9. Munch, Jakob R. & Olney, William W., 2024. "Offshoring and the Decline of Unions," IZA Discussion Papers 17116, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Brändle, Tobias, 2024. "Unions and Collective Bargaining: The Influence on Wages, Employment and Firm Survival," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1457, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    11. Martins, Pedro S., 2022. "The wage effects of employers' associations: A case study of the private schools sector," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1163, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    12. Garcia-Louzao, Jose & Tarasonis, Linas, 2023. "Wage and Employment Impact of Minimum Wage: Evidence from Lithuania," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 592-609.
    13. Francesco Devicienti & Bernardo Fanfani, 2025. "Firms' margins of adjustment to wage growth: the case of Italian collective bargaining," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 92(365), pages 107-149, January.
    14. Bustos, Emil, 2023. "The Effect of Centrally Bargained Wages on Firm Growth," Working Paper Series 1456, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    15. Oliveira, Carlos, 2023. "The minimum wage and the wage distribution in Portugal," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    16. Bernardo Fanfani & Claudio Lucifora & Daria Vigani, 2024. "Employer associations in Italy: Trends and economic outcomes," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 62(2), pages 206-232, June.
    17. Black, Ines & Figueiredo, Ana, 2024. "The Illusion of Cyclicality in Entry Wages," IZA Discussion Papers 17189, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Diego Daruich & Sabrina Di Addario & Raffaele Saggio, 2023. "The Effects of Partial Employment Protection Reforms: Evidence from Italy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(6), pages 2880-2942.
    19. Carlos Oliveira, 2024. "Income and wage inequality in democratic Portugal, 1974–2020," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(3), pages 393-414, September.
    20. Datta, Nikhil & Machin, Stephen, 2024. "Government Contracting and Living Wages > Minimum Wages," IZA Discussion Papers 17117, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Marta C.Lopes & Alessandro Tondini, 2022. "Firm-Level Effects of Reductions in Working Hours," FBK-IRVAPP Working Papers 2022-05, Research Institute for the Evaluation of Public Policies (IRVAPP), Bruno Kessler Foundation.
    22. Barrela, Rodrigo & Costa, Eduardo & Portugal, Pedro, 2024. "On the Asymmetrical Sensitivity of the Distribution of Real Wages to Business Cycle Fluctuations," IZA Discussion Papers 16911, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    23. Fanfani, Bernardo, 2023. "The employment effects of collective wage bargaining," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    24. Pablo Blanchard & Paula Carrasco & Rodrigo Ceni & Cecilia Parada & Sofía Santín, 2021. "Distributive and displacement effects of a coordinated wage bargaining scheme," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 21-26, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    25. Adamopoulou, Effrosyni & Villanueva, Ernesto, 2022. "Wage determination and the bite of collective contracts in Italy and Spain," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    wage flexibility; sectoral bargaining; trade unions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects

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