“Chilling” under arbitration and mixed strike-arbitration regimes

This paper investigates the “chilling effect” of arbitration hypothesis using data from public sector collective bargaining activity in Minnesota. Settlement rates under a regime requiring the compulsory arbitration of impasses are compared to rates under a regime permitting a limited right to strike. The authors find a significantly lower settlement rate under the pure arbitration regime. Other factors that could result in this rate differential are discussed. While not ruling out the possibility of unmeasured differences, the authors conclude that the differential is due to differences in regime and not to the confounding factors discussed. The authors wish to thank Paul Schumann and an anonymous referee for comments resulting in substantial improvements in this paper.     

Immigrants,blacklegs and ‘unpatriotic employers’: The London stonemasons’ strike of 1877–78

This case study gives a detailed account of this labour struggle with special emphasis on the importation and immigration of workmen from North America and the Continent as well as from England and Scotland to London during the dispute. Placed in this international perspective and in the context of German immigration to Britain, particular consideration is given to stonemasons coming from Northern and Southern Germany. While a considerable number of the workers who arrived in the British capital, in solidarity with the men on strike, refused to work for the employers and left London aided by the stonemasons’ union, a majority acted as strike‐breakers and was thus instrumental in bringing about the defeat of the local workers in their struggle for shorter hours and higher wages.     

The working spouse penalty/premium and married women’s labor supply

Using data drawn from the Current Population Surveys, this paper provides a consistent explanation for why the presence of a working wife reduces the husband’s wage among managers, but increases the husband’s wage among non-managers. It is not husband’s occupation per se but rather the distribution of husbands’ wage levels that underlies the working spouse penalty or premium. Positive correlations in earnings between married couples that arise from assortative mating make the cross-wage effects of the husbands’ wages on the wives’ hours of work first positive, then negative in cross-sectional data. The phenomenon of a working spouse penalty/premium is simply the flip side of this relationship.

WAGES, EARNINGS AND HOURS OF FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD GENERATION AMERICAN MALES

Analysis of 1970 census data for eight ethnic groups indicates that, other things equal, recent immigrants generally receive lower wages and earnings than second generation workers, but second generation workers receive higher wages and earnings than do third. Recent immigrants and third generation men work significantly fewer hours per year than do earlier immigrants and second generation men. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that increases in U. S. specific human capital over generations are offset by decreases in motivation. The higher motivation of immigrants appears to reflect greater preference for money over family ties, leisure, and easy work as compared with non-immigrants. immigrants.     

WAGES AND EMPLOYMENT IN PUBLIC-SECTOR UNIONS

We model the politics of wage and employment determination for unionized public-sector workers who can strike. If the employment level affects the identity of the decisive voter in budget referenda and other elections, then unions may be able to increase wages by increasing employment. We identify conditions under which public sector unionization will lead to increased wages and employment; we also show that a majority of voters may favor unionization. (JEL 545, J51, H4)     

Wives' Relative Wages,Husbands' Paid Work Hours,and Wives' Labor‐Force Exit

Economic theories predict that women are more likely to exit the labor force if their partners' earnings are higher and if their own wage rate is lower. In this article, I use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 2,254) and discrete‐time event‐history analysis to show that wives' relative wages are more predictive of their exit than are their own or their husbands' absolute wages. In addition, I show that women married to men who work more than 45 hours per week are more likely to exit the labor force than are wives whose husbands' work approximately 40 hours per week. My findings highlight the need to examine how women's partners affect women's labor‐force participation.     

COMPETITION AND TEACHER PAY

Competition‐based school reform could have a significant impact on teacher earnings. If school districts behave as typical oligopsonists, then increased competition could lead to higher salaries. However, if teachers receive a share of the economic rents generated by the monopoly power of school districts, then increased competition could lower teacher salaries. This study uses panel data from 670 Texas school districts and more than 335,000 teachers to examine the relationship between school competition and teacher pay. The analysis suggests that an increase in competition results in higher wages for most teachers but lower wages for teachers in relatively concentrated markets. (JEL I2, J3)     

THE FLEXIBILITY OF THE WORKWEEK IN THE UNITED STATES: EVIDENCE FROM THE FIFA WORLD CUP

In this paper, I explore the flexibility of the workweek in the United States, using the FIFA Soccer World Cup as a natural experiment. My empirical strategy exploits the exogenous variation that arises due to which country hosts the World Cup, as this will determine the time games are broadcast across different time zones in the United States. The hour of the day when games are broadcast differentially affects hours of work across different time zones. Further, the calendar timing of the World Cup allows me to compare labor market outcomes in June/July for a worker in World Cup year t, with the outcomes in June/July for a worker in non‐World Cup years t + 1, t + 2 and t + 3. My results highlight the importance of the worker's pay frequency in their workweek flexibility, as all differences in weekly hours of work due to the World Cup are concentrated among salary paid workers. Also, my results show that after controlling for observable demographic characteristics as well as year and month fixed effects, a worker reduces on average his hours of work during the World Cup by statistically significant estimates that range from 9 weekly minutes to 28 weekly minutes, depending on specification choice and time of the day during which World Cup games are broadcast live in the United States. (JEL J22)     

Parental duties,labor market behavior,and single fatherhood in America

Longitudinal analysis using samples from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics suggests that men’s income and wages decrease after entering into single fatherhood by marital separation. This loss exceeds what can be explained by marital separation alone. Using a difference in difference approach, I estimate that single fatherhood suppresses men’s annual income by more than $8,000 per year, putting these men and their children at increased economic risk. Similar labor market changes are experienced by widower fathers, a subset of exogenous single fathers. The apparent effects show persistence after single fathers remarry, but mostly diminish after children mature and leave the household. These results stand at odds with previous research suggesting that fatherhood increases men’s wages and hours, and that male labor market outcomes are not significantly influenced by housework.     

The Labor Supply of Female Heads of Household: Comparisons With Male Heads and Wives*

This paper compares a model of labor supply for female heads of household, male heads, and wives. Not only have female-headed households increased significantly as a proportion of all households in recent years, but these households are also more likely to be in poverty than are other households. Yet, the determinants of labor supply for this increasingly important demographic group still are largely unknown. Analyses are performed on a sample of employed female and male heads and wives from the 1976 Survey of Income and Education. We examine the effects of wages, unearned income, number of children, and several other variables on hours worked per year, allowing for race interactions. We find that female heads and wives are similar in the effects of wages on their labor supply, while female and male heads are similar in the positive effect of children. We conclude that although financial need, as evidenced by low wages and children, increases female heads’labor supply, employment in more advantaged, non-female dominated jobs and core industries is needed to promote their full participation in the labor force.     

How state exceptions to employment-at-will affect wages

Little research has been conducted on the effects of state adoption of exceptions to the common law doctrine of employment-at-will, which states that both employees and employers have the right to terminate an employment relationship at any time for any reason. I examine how these exceptions affect wages and find that, as predicted, the two are inversely related. All three commonly adopted exceptions are negatively related to the wage rate, with state adoption being associated with up to a three percent reduction in wages.     

The minimum wage and poverty among full-time workers

V. Conclusions The empirical evidence is strong that minimum wages have had little or no effect on poverty in the U.S. Indeed, the evidence is stronger that minimum wages occasionally increase poverty. It also suggests that the minimum wage does not even lower poverty for the one group that, almost by definition, one would expect to be helped: full-time, year-round workers. While the empirical results suggest minimum wages do not achieve what is ostensibly their primary goal — relieving poverty among the working poor — minimum wages do seem to impose a real cost on society in terms of lost income and output. The empirical evidence on work hours suggests that a $1 increase in the minimum wage, far from being almost costless, could conceivably impose income losses to American workers in the $12-15 billion range per year — an amount equal to the “income deficit” of millions of persons counted as poor by the U.S. Bureau of the Census.     

Not All Laws are Created Equal: Legal Differences in State Non-Discrimination Laws and the Impact of LGBT Employment Protections

In this paper, I study the impact of legal differences in state employment nondiscrimination acts (ENDAs) for gay men and lesbian women on labor market outcomes. Employing a DDD approach, I show that enacting an employment non-discrimination act is associated with increased wages of gay men and decreased employment of lesbian women. If all employment non-discrimination acts are treated as identical, these laws increased the hourly wages of gay men by 2.7% and decreased the employment of lesbian women by 1.7% and their hours worked by 0.7 hours. The results show that the strength of the law can result in heteroge-neous effects of the laws for gay men, but not for lesbian women. ENDAs with both punitive and compensatory damage provisions resulted in smaller wage increases for gay men than ENDAs with only compensatory damage provisions. ENDAs with longer statutes of limitations for complaints increased the employment of gay men, whereas laws with shorter statutes of limitations decreased employment. Based on the estimates from the state-level employment non-discrimination acts, I argue that extending federal protections under Title VII would lead to a small increase in the wages of gay men, but would significantly reduce the employment of lesbian women.     

The effects of children on the major dimensions of home-based employment

Using an ordinary least squares regression procedure and data from the NE-167 sample of home-based employment households, the effects of children on seven major home-based work dimensions, respectively, are estimated along with remaining work dimensions and a series of control variables. The findings show that having a child equal to or under 18 years of age reduces home-based work hours by 407 hours per year, which equates to 1 work day per week. The separate effect of a child under 6 years of age reduces work hours by 296 hours per year or about three-quarters of a work day per week. Being a male home-based worker offsets these children effects considerably compared with being a female home-based worker. Children in general are negatively related to large-scale businesses that hire employees or services. Younger children negatively affect the likelihood of being a home-based business owner and being involved in seasonal home-based employment.This article reports results from the Cooperative Regional Research Project, NE-167, entitled, At-Home Income Generation: Impact on Management, Productivity and Stability in Rural and Urban Families, partially supported by Cooperative States Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Experiment Stations at the University of Hawaii, Iowa State University, Lincoln University (Missouri), Michigan State University, Cornell University (New York), The Ohio State University, The Pennsylvania State University, Utah State University, and University of Vermont. Appreciation is expressed to You-Hyun Cho for the computer assistance needed to complete these analyses. Patsy Seilen and Justine Lynge were instrumental in formatting and stylizing this article to required guidelines.Her current research interests include household asset and debt formation, working families, and employers' benefits and home-based employment. She received her Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1978.     

What did Unions do? The Case of Illinois Coal Mining in the 1880s

This study asks what unions did for Illinois coal miners in the 1880s. It measures the outcomes provided by a traditional union and the Knights of Labor, primarily via difference-in-differences applied to a panel of coal mining counties in Illinois. Neither the traditional union nor the Knights of Labor was able to raise wages, provide benefits, or reduce hours per workday. The traditional union reduced days of work per year. Circumstantial evidence suggests the unions were able to ensure prompt payment of wages due.     

Risk and final offer arbitration usage rates: Evidence from major league baseball

We use major league baseball data to examine risk and final-offer arbitration usage. Risk attitudes are proxied by the likelihood that FOA-generated salary increases place the player’s baseball employment at risk. Employment risk is inversely related to player quality. Our evidence suggests that higher-quality (low-risk) players are more likely to file for arbitration and seek an arbitrated settlement than lowerquality (high-risk) players. We thank Paul Burgess for helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.     

On the Labour Market Progress of Polish Accession Workers in South‐East England

The enlargement of the European Union (EU) in May 2004 produced a very significant wave of immigration to the United Kingdom that is likely to continue to impact its labour market in forthcoming years. Polish migrants were by far the largest cohort of the new entrants. This paper complements previous work that has begun to establish the characteristics and labour market performance of migrants from the new member states who have entered the United Kingdom. This paper uses a unique micro‐level data base to investigate the labour market evolution of Polish migrants in the UK labour market. We find that in the first UK job returns to human capital were negligible. However, for the current job an extra year of education increases the weekly gross wage by 3.2 per cent. There is evidence of a gender differential in pay in both jobs and that older workers are paid more than their younger counterparts but this effect becomes insignificant in the current job. We find that hours worked is a significant factor in wage determination. However, the influence of hours worked on wages declined by approximately 38 per cent between the first and current job. Results from multinomial logit models suggest that over‐time there is some “match” between the occupational groupings that these workers were attached to in Poland and the United Kingdom. We also find evidence that the use of employment agencies by some of these workers increases the likelihood of employment in skilled manual and non‐manual occupations. Workers who have had supervisory responsibility in the United Kingdom are more likely to be in professional or intermediate occupations.     

A bargaining model and empirical analysis of strike activity across industries

This study extends the analysis on the inter-industry propensity to strike found in Leigh (1983) by (1) developing a more elaborate model, (2) developing proxies for all the parameters of the model, and (3) testing the modified model on two new data sets. The results suggest that strikes are more frequent in hazardous industries employing few women and where the average level of schooling is low. In addition, the evidence suggests strikes and wages may be simultaneously determined.     

Union membership,economic rents,and migration behavior

This study represents an extension of the human capital paradigm as it relates to an individual’s decision to migrate. It differs from previous studies by incorporating union membership, a labor market variable, into the model. In effect, the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 granted a monopoly bargaining position to unions. The theoretical implication of a union’s monopoly bargaining position is that union wage levels will increase relative to nonunion wages. The increase of relative wages results in union membership granting a property right that possesses positive net present value and hence reduces an employed union member’s probability of migrating. Additionally, the supra-competitive remuneration of union members results in a surplus of labor supplied to union firms. Employers respond by using quality screening to hire workers from the larger labor pool. As a result, unemployed union members will on average possess higher levels of human capital, which will increase their probability of migrating above that of their unemployed nonunion cohorts.