Inequality and Union Membership: The Impact of Relative Earnings Position and Inequality Attitudes

This contribution scrutinises how introducing a statutory minimum wage of EUR 8.50 per hour, in January 2015, impacted German employees’ decision with regard to union membership. Based on representative data from the Labour Market and Social Security panel, the study applies a logistic difference-in-differences propensity score matching approach on entries into and withdrawals from unions in the German Trade Union Confederation (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB). The results show no separate effect on withdrawals from or entries into unions after the minimum wage introduction for those employees who benefited financially from it, but a significant increase of entries overall. Thus, unions’ campaign for a minimum wage strengthened their position in total but did not reverse the segmentation of union membership patterns.

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Managerial views on compulsory unionism in New Zealand

New Zealand Journal of Industrial Relations ◽

10.26686/nzjir.v14i3.3790 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

Author(s):

A. J. Geare

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Union Membership ◽

Industrial Relations ◽

The Impact

The New Zealand industrial relations literature contains a number of propositions concerning the impact or desirability of having compulsory union membership. This paper discusses the propositions, and reports on the response of a sample of 461 New Zealand managers, examining the significance of their attitudes.

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Political attitudes and trade union membership in the Nordic countries

European Journal of Industrial Relations ◽

10.1177/0959680117708372 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 23 (4) ◽

pp. 381-395 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Carsten Strøby Jensen

Keyword(s):

Survey Data ◽

Trade Union ◽

Union Membership ◽

Trade Unions ◽

Political Attitudes ◽

European Social Survey ◽

Nordic Countries ◽

Left Wing ◽

Social Survey ◽

The Impact

Do political attitudes influence the likelihood of employees being members of a trade union, and to what extent is this the case in the Nordic countries with their high aggregate levels of membership? In this article, I address these questions using European Social Survey data from 2012. The results show that left-wing political attitudes have the most impact on the likelihood of trade union membership in Sweden and to a lesser extent in Denmark. In Norway and Finland, there is no statistically significant impact. I argue that the impact of left-wing political attitudes on unionization in Sweden and Denmark reflects a conception among employees that trade unions are normative organizations.

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The impact of gender differences in occupational attainment on the relative earnings of young workers

Applied Economics Letters ◽

10.1080/13504850500401742 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 13 (10) ◽

pp. 615-619 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Paul E. Gabriel ◽

Susanne Schmitz

Keyword(s):

Gender Differences ◽

Occupational Attainment ◽

Young Workers ◽

Relative Earnings ◽

The Impact

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Een halve eeuw vakbondslidmaatschap : Een verkennende longitudinale studie naar enkele cyclische determinanten voor de ledenontwikkeling van de Belgische vakbonden, 1946-1995

Res Publica ◽

10.21825/rp.v46i1.18419 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 46 (1) ◽

pp. 6-32

Author(s):

Kurt Vandaele

Keyword(s):

Trade Union ◽

Union Membership ◽

Trade Unions ◽

Econometric Model ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Union Density ◽

Free Riding ◽

Structural Variable ◽

Explanatory Variables ◽

The Impact

This article explains the ebb and flow in Belgian trade union membership from 1946 to 1995 by replicating the econometric model by Bain and Elsheikhn in which changes in macro-economic variables are highly significant. Since the automatic indexation of wages and the extension of collective labour agreements invite free riding, the relevance of the change in inflation and real wage is quite striking. However, the free riding-effect is slowed down by the institutionalised presence of the trade unions on the work floor. The Ghent system explains the positive impact of the unemployment rate . The model is furthermore improved by the trade union density as a structural variable. The linear form reflects the enforcement effect, while the quadratic form mirrors the saturation effect on the trade union membership. Mainly due to the 'Allgemeinkoalitionsfähighkeit' of the Belgian government system, the impact of left parties on union growth and decline is not significant in a quantitative framework. With only four explanatory variables the model clarifies more than 75% of the fluctuations in Belgian trade union membership.

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A Half Century of Trade Union Membership. The Cyclical Macro-Determinants of Postwar Union Growth in Belgium

World Political Science ◽

10.2202/1935-6226.1004 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kurt Vandaele

Keyword(s):

Trade Union ◽

Union Membership ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Real Wages ◽

Half Century ◽

Explanatory Variables ◽

Union Growth ◽

Seminal Contribution ◽

The Impact ◽

Leftist Parties

Based on the seminal contribution of Bain and Elsheikh, this article explains the ebb and flow in trade union membership in Belgium from 1948 to 1995. With only four explanatory variables, the model clarifies more than 75 per cent of the fluctuations in Belgian trade union membership. The results show that rises in inflation, real wages and, due to the Ghent system, unemployment have a positive impact on unionization. Although there is an enforcement effect, a saturation effect takes over, indicating that further union growth is hampered by the union's own size. Mainly due to the 'Allgemeinkoalitionsfähighkeit' of the Belgian government system, the impact of leftist parties on unionization is not significant in a quantitative framework.

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