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Most studies of trade unions' positive impact on their members' wages
relative to those of non-union workers have used data for the US, where
union status is almost exclusively linked to the job and the dominant
bargaining unit is an establishment-based union that negotiates for its
members only. Many have argued that union wage effects therefore cannot
arise in Germany, where collective bargaining in the private sector is
conducted along industry and regional lines and labour law requires
equal treatment of all workers regardless of union status. Empirical
support for this reasoning has recently been supplemented by studies
finding that union members earn significantly more than non-members,
however, even after controlling for other observable characteristics. In
Discussion Paper No. 918, Research Affiliate Christoph Schmidt
seeks to reconcile these conflicting results using data from four German
micro surveys for 1978-88. The shares of employment held by women and by
young workers increased significantly during this period, while the
proportion of workers with low levels of overall schooling declined
steadily, but the wage structure measured by the malefemale wage
differential or returns to education proved remarkably stable. There was
no major shift away from blue-collar male employment, as found in the UK
and US, although the share of female white-collar workers in employment
rose steadily. |