Union Wages and Union Decline

Evidence from the Construction Industry

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4746405
AutoresDale Belman (Economic Policy Institute), Paula B Voos (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey)
Ano2006
Volume60
Fascículo1
Páginas67-87
Data de publicação2006-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoIndustrial and Labor Relations Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0019-7939 • E-ISSN: 2162-271X
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/001979390606000104
OpenAlexW2161337815
ISBN9793906060001
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas24

Two well-documented empirical findings are that unionized employees typically receive substantially higher compensation than their non-union counterparts and that union representation in the United States has declined over time. Some observers have hypothesized a causal link between these two phenomena: the achievement of a union wage premium, they argue, hastened union decline both by reducing union firms' economic competitiveness and by inducing employers to adopt various union avoidance strategies. Using data from the Current Population Survey and the Census Bureau's Census of Construction, the authors test this hypothesis for the construction industry. Even in estimations that allow for a lagged response and incorporate a variety of controls, they find no evidence that high union/nonunion wage ratios in construction in the 1970s or 1980s resulted in lower union membership in 2000

Census · Current Population Survey · Demographic economics · Economics · Empirical evidence · Labour economics · Non union · Political science · Population · Representation (politics) · Sociology · Survey data collection · Wage · Demography · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality · Labor Movements and Unions · Transport and Economic Policies