IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rif/wpaper/118.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effects of the Decentralization of Collective Bargaining on Wage Differences Among Employee Groups

Author

Listed:
  • Kauhanen, Antti

Abstract

Recently, Finnish forest industries shifted from sectoral collective bargaining to firm-level bargaining, and the IT services industry shifted to a hybrid of sector- and firm-level bargaining. These changes meant that all issues previously covered by sectoral agreements would now be negotiated at the firm level, which could lead to notable contract changes. A study previously published by ETLA showed that decentralization of bargaining had only modest impacts on the level and dispersion of wages. Of the groups examined, only for blue-collar workers in paper industries, decentralization led to higher wages and increased wage dispersion within firms. This study examines the effects of the transition to firm-level agreements on pay differences between different groups. Previous international research has shown that decentralization of the collective bargaining system can lead to an increase in the gender pay gap or to an increase in the pay gap between different educational groups. The results of the study show that in Finland, the move away from union-specific bargaining did not increase pay differences between different groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Kauhanen, Antti, 2024. "The Effects of the Decentralization of Collective Bargaining on Wage Differences Among Employee Groups," ETLA Working Papers 118, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    • Handle: RePEc:rif:wpaper:118
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.etla.fi/wp-content/uploads/ETLA-Working-Papers-118.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jelle Visser, 2016. "What happened to collective bargaining during the great recession?," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-35, December.
    2. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Susan Athey & David A. Hirshberg & Guido W. Imbens & Stefan Wager, 2021. "Synthetic Difference-in-Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(12), pages 4088-4118, December.
    3. Damian Clarke & Daniel Paila~nir & Susan Athey & Guido Imbens, 2023. "Synthetic Difference In Differences Estimation," Papers 2301.11859, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2023.
    4. Christian M. Dahl & Daniel le Maire & Jakob R. Munch, 2013. "Wage Dispersion and Decentralization of Wage Bargaining," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(3), pages 501-533.
    5. Anni Heikkilä & Hannu Piekkola, 2005. "Explaining the Desire for Local Bargaining: Evidence from a Finnish Survey of Employers and Employees," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 19(2), pages 399-423, June.
    6. Antti Kauhanen & Terhi Maczulskij & Krista Riukula, 2024. "The incidence and effects of decentralized wage bargaining in Finland," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 232-253, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Antti Kauhanen, 2024. "The effects of the decentralization of collective bargaining on wages and wage dispersion: Evidence from the Finnish forest and IT industries," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 62(2), pages 319-334, June.
    2. Kauhanen, Antti, 2023. "The Effects of the Decentralization of Collective Bargaining on Wages and Wage Dispersion: Evidence from the Finnish Forest and IT Industries," ETLA Working Papers 105, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    3. Kauhanen, Antti & Maczulskij, Terhi & Riukula, Krista, 2020. "Heterogeneous Impacts of the Decentralization of Collective Bargaining," IZA Discussion Papers 13867, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Antti Kauhanen & Terhi Maczulskij & Krista Riukula, 2024. "The incidence and effects of decentralized wage bargaining in Finland," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 232-253, June.
    5. Maczulskij, Terhi & Haapanen, Mika & Kauhanen, Antti & Riukula, Krista, 2021. "Dark Half: Decentralized Bargaining and Well-Being at Work," IZA Discussion Papers 14654, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Ramos, Raul & Sanromá, Esteban & Simón, Hipólito, 2022. "Collective bargaining levels, employment and wage inequality in Spain," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 375-395.
    7. Ramos, Raul & Sanromá, Esteban & Simón, Hipólito, 2018. "Wage Differentials by Bargaining Regime in Spain (2002-2014): An Analysis Using Matched Employer-Employee Data," IZA Discussion Papers 12013, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Hobbs, Duncan & Strain, Michael R., 2024. "Do Reemployment Bonuses Increase Employment? Evidence from the Idaho Return to Work Bonus Program," IZA Discussion Papers 16924, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Dench, Daniel & Pineda-Torres, Mayra & Myers, Caitlin, 2024. "The effects of post-Dobbs abortion bans on fertility," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    10. Cerqua, Augusto & Ferrante, Chiara & Letta, Marco, 2023. "Electoral earthquake: Local shocks and authoritarian voting," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    11. Adolfsen, Jakob Feveile & Heissel, Malte & Manu, Ana-Simona & Vinci, Francesca, 2024. "Burn now or never? Climate change exposure and investment of fossil fuel firms," Working Paper Series 2945, European Central Bank.
    12. Kauhanen, Antti & Rouvinen, Petri, 2024. "Assessing Early Labor Market Effects of Generative AI - Evidence from Population Data," ETLA Working Papers 121, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    13. Saggu, Aman & Ante, Lennart, 2023. "The influence of ChatGPT on artificial intelligence related crypto assets: Evidence from a synthetic control analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PB).
    14. Scavette, Adam, 2023. "The economic impact of a casino monopoly: Evidence from Atlantic City," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    15. Kishore, Prabhat & Roy, Devesh & Birthal, Pratap S. & Srivastava, Shivendra Kumar, 2024. "Regulation and Policy Response to Groundwater Preservation in India," Policy Papers 345044, ICAR National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NIAP).
    16. Sun, Meng & Zhao, Naibao & Zheng, Emily Yiying, 2024. "The devil in the air: Air pollution and dementia," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    17. Ajab Khan & Ali Sina Önder & Sercan Özcan, 2023. "Does Performance-based Public Funding Pay off? UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) and Research Productivity," Working Papers in Economics & Finance 2023-08, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth Business School, Economics and Finance Subject Group.
    18. Aglio, Daniele & Di Mauro, Filippo, 2020. "Decentralisation of collective bargaining: A path to productivity?," IWH-CompNet Discussion Papers 3/2020, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    19. Fleuriet, Vincent & Vertier, Paul, 2024. "Does the G20 compact with Africa foster economic growth: Evidence from synthetic differences," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    20. Sadeghi, Ali & Kibler, Ewald, 2022. "Do bankruptcy laws matter for entrepreneurship? A Synthetic Control Method analysis of a bankruptcy reform in Finland," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Firm-level bargaining; Earnings; Wage dispersion; Gender wage differences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J52 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Dispute Resolution: Strikes, Arbitration, and Mediation
    • J53 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Labor-Management Relations; Industrial Jurisprudence

    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:rif:wpaper:118. 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: Kaija Hyvönen-Rajecki (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/etlaafi.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.