IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp2210.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Piece Work Pay and Hourly Pay over the Cycle

Author

Listed:
  • Hart, Robert A.

    (University of Stirling)

Abstract

This paper investigates the relative cyclical behavior of the pay of piece workers and hourly paid workers. It uses a unique data set of blue-collar workers in British engineering between 1926 and 1966. The statistics are obtained from the payrolls of firms belonging to the Engineering Employers Federation (EEF). Roughly, the EEF accounted for one-third of the total engineering workforce. The data consist of cell averages delineated by 15 occupations in 29 engineering districts. Via a firm-union bargaining modelling structure, the question is examined as to likely earnings responses to price shocks under the two payment systems. The empirical work entails testing for cyclical differences in the two payments methods Insights are gained from distinguishing between the relatively tight post-war and slack pre-war labor markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Hart, Robert A., 2006. "Piece Work Pay and Hourly Pay over the Cycle," IZA Discussion Papers 2210, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2210
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp2210.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Salop, Steven C, 1979. "A Model of the Natural Rate of Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(1), pages 117-125, March.
    2. Lazear, Edward P, 1986. "Salaries and Piece Rates," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(3), pages 405-431, July.
    3. Katharine G. Abraham & John C. Haltiwanger, 1995. "Real Wages and the Business Cycle," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(3), pages 1215-1264, September.
    4. Paul J. Devereux & Robert A. Hart, 2006. "Real Wage Cyclicality of Job Stayers, Within-Company Job Movers, and Between-Company Job Movers," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 60(1), pages 105-119, October.
    5. Bernanke, Ben S, 1986. "Employment, Hours, and Earnings in the Depression: An Analysis of EightManufacturing Industries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(1), pages 82-109, March.
    6. Charles Brown, 1990. "Firms' Choice of Method of Pay," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 43(3), pages 165-1-182-, April.
    7. Paul J. Devereux, 2001. "The Cyclicality of Real Wages within Employer-Employee Matches," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 54(4), pages 835-850, July.
    8. Seiler, Eric, 1984. "Piece Rate vs. Time Rate: The Effect of Incentives on Earnings," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(3), pages 363-376, August.
    9. Ben S. Bernanke & James Powell, 1986. "The Cyclical Behavior of Industrial Labor Markets: A Comparison of the Prewar and Postwar Eras," NBER Chapters, in: The American Business Cycle: Continuity and Change, pages 583-638, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Fama, Eugene F, 1991. "Time, Salary, and Incentive Payoffs in Labor Contracts," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(1), pages 25-44, January.
    11. Eric Wigham, 1973. "The Power to Manage," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-01264-0, October.
    12. Moulton, Brent R., 1986. "Random group effects and the precision of regression estimates," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 385-397, August.
    13. Gary Solon & Robert Barsky & Jonathan A. Parker, 1994. "Measuring the Cyclicality of Real Wages: How Important is Composition Bias?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(1), pages 1-25.
    14. Hart,Robert A. & Moutos,Thomas, 2008. "Human Capital, Employment and Bargaining," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521061032, September.
    15. Lutz Bellmann & Uwe Blien, 2001. "Wage Curve Analyses of Establishment Data from Western Germany," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 54(4), pages 851-863, July.
    16. Abowd, John M & Card, David, 1989. "On the Covariance Structure of Earnings and Hours Changes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(2), pages 411-445, March.
    17. Robert A. Hart, 2005. "General human capital and employment adjustment in the Great Depression: apprentices and journeymen in UK engineering," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 57(1), pages 169-189, January.
    18. Robert A. Hart, 2006. "Worker–Job Matches, Job Mobility and Real Wage Cyclicality," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 73(290), pages 287-298, May.
    19. Bils, Mark J, 1985. "Real Wages over the Business Cycle: Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(4), pages 666-689, August.
    20. Donggyun Shin & Gary Solon, 2007. "New Evidence On Real Wage Cyclicality Within Employer–Employee Matches," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 54(5), pages 648-660, November.
    21. Shin, Donggyun, 1994. "Cyclicality of real wages among young men," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 137-142, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hart, Robert A. & Roberts, J. Elizabeth, 2013. "Industrial Composition, Methods of Compensation and Real Earnings in the Great Depression," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 226, pages 17-29, November.
    2. Anger, Silke, 2011. "The cyclicality of effective wages within employer–employee matches in a rigid labor market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 786-797.
    3. Grace Weishi Gu & Eswar Prasad & Thomas Moehrle, 2020. "New Evidence on Cyclical Variation in Average Labor Costs in the United States," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(5), pages 966-979, December.
    4. Silke Anger, 2007. "The Cyclicality of Effective Wages within Employer-Employee Matches: Evidence from German Panel Data," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 719, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Grace Weishi Gu & Eswar Prasad, 2018. "New Evidence on Cyclical Variation in Labor Costs in the U.S," NBER Working Papers 24266, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Hart, Robert A. & Roberts, J. Elizabeth, 2010. "Real Wages, Working Time, and the Great Depression: What Does Micro Evidence Tell Us?," IZA Discussion Papers 4977, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Robert A. Hart & J. Elizabeth Roberts, 2013. "Real wage cyclicality and the Great Depression: evidence from British engineering and metal working firms," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 65(2), pages 197-218, April.
    8. Cantarella, Michele & Strozzi, Chiara, 2022. "Piecework and Job Search in the Platform Economy," IZA Discussion Papers 15775, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Robert A. Hart, 2016. "The rise and fall of piecework," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 254-254, April.
    10. Beatriz Muriel & Horacio Vera, 2015. "The Effects of Economic Growth on Earnings in Bolivia," Development Research Working Paper Series 08/2015, Institute for Advanced Development Studies.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hart, Robert A. & Roberts, J. Elizabeth, 2010. "Real Wages, Working Time, and the Great Depression: What Does Micro Evidence Tell Us?," IZA Discussion Papers 4977, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Pedro S. Martins, 2007. "Heterogeneity In Real Wage Cyclicality," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 54(5), pages 684-698, November.
    3. Fei Peng & W. Stanley Siebert, 2008. "Real Wage Cyclicality in Italy," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 22(4), pages 569-591, December.
    4. Anger, Silke, 2007. "The cyclicality of effective wages within employer-employee matches: evidence from German panel data," Working Paper Series 783, European Central Bank.
    5. Robert A. Hart & J. Elizabeth Roberts, 2013. "Real wage cyclicality and the Great Depression: evidence from British engineering and metal working firms," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 65(2), pages 197-218, April.
    6. Anabela Carneiro & Paulo Guimaraes & Pedro Portugal, 2009. "Real Wages and the Business Cycle: Accounting for Worker and Firm Heterogeneity," CEF.UP Working Papers 0903, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    7. Lili Kang & Fei Peng, 2017. "Wage flexibility in the Chinese labour market, 1989–2009," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 616-628, April.
    8. Hart, Robert A., 2006. "Real Wage Cyclicality of Female Stayers and Movers in Part-Time and Full-Time Jobs," IZA Discussion Papers 2364, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. David Gray & Hanqing Qiu, 2010. "The responsiveness of industry wages to low‐frequency shocks in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(4), pages 1221-1242, November.
    10. Anger, Silke, 2011. "The Cyclicality of Effective Wages within Employer–Employee Matches in a Rigid Labor Market," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 18(6), pages 786-797.
    11. Hart, Robert A., 2005. "Piecework versus Timework in British Wartime Engineering," IZA Discussion Papers 1593, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Kang, Lili & Peng, Fei, 2012. "Selection and Real wage cyclicality: Germany Case," MPRA Paper 42452, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Martins, Pedro S. & Solon, Gary & Thomas, Jonathan P., 2010. "Measuring What Employers Really Do about Entry Wages over the Business Cycle," IZA Discussion Papers 4757, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Gu, Grace Weishi & Prasad, Eswar, 2018. "New Evidence on Cyclical Variation in Labor Costs in the U.S," IZA Discussion Papers 11311, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Haefke, Christian & Sonntag, Marcus & van Rens, Thijs, 2013. "Wage rigidity and job creation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(8), pages 887-899.
    16. Christopher A. Pissarides, 2009. "The Unemployment Volatility Puzzle: Is Wage Stickiness the Answer?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(5), pages 1339-1369, September.
    17. Bjorn Dapi, 2020. "Wage Cyclicality and Composition Bias in the Norwegian Economy," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(4), pages 1403-1430, October.
    18. Fei Peng & Sajid Anwar & Lili Kang, 2020. "Job Movement and Real Wage Flexibility in Eastern and Western Parts of Germany," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 44(4), pages 764-789, October.
    19. Paul J. Devereux & Robert A. Hart, 2006. "Real Wage Cyclicality of Job Stayers, Within-Company Job Movers, and Between-Company Job Movers," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 60(1), pages 105-119, October.
    20. Shin Donggyun, 2012. "Cyclicality of Real Wages in Korea," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    business cycle; hourly pay; piece work pay;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2210. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.