This study analyses firms’ labour demand when employers have at least some monopsony power. It is argued that without taking into account (quasi-)monopsonistic structures of the labour market, wrong predictions are made about the effects of minimum wages. Using switching fractional panel probit regressions with German establishment data, I find that slightly more than 80% of establishments exercise some degree of monopsony power in their demand for low-skilled workers. The outcome suggests that a 1% increase in payments for low-skilled workers would, in these firms, increase employment for this group by 1.12%, while firms without monopsony power reduce the number of low-skilled, by about 1.63% for the same increase in remuneration. The study can probably also be used to explain the limited employment effects of the introduction of a statutory minimum wage in Germany and thus leads to a better understanding of the labour market for low-skilled workers.

One of the major factors in building a successful system of employee participation is the involvement of unions and government. In this article, the limitations of system of employee participation in Taiwan are examined. The article begins with a brief overview of Taiwanese industrial relations. It then focuses on the development of Employee Participation in Taiwan, before exploring the impacts of privatisation on the state-owned enterprises in Taiwan, with reference to Chunghwa Telecom Company.

In this paper, changes in Norwegian bargaining and participation since the end of the eighties are discussed in a twenty year perspective. It is argued that a corporatist bargaining structure has been reinstated as a pragmatic measure to handle a difficult economic situation. This is contrary to the general political sentiments which have prevailed since the beginning of the eighties. However, a new constellation of actors are emerging on the organisational level who may irreversibly change the bargaining structure. With regard to participation, the laws and institutions that were introduced during the 1970s are still in place. However, their content is changing from democratisation as a value by itself to a focus on productivity-improvement as the ultimate goal.

Eurozone economies were the most adversely affected by the Global Financial Crisis, with forecast macroeconomic outcomes still highly uncertain. This article argues first that the Eurozone policy framework can be viewed as neo-liberalism overlaid with policy constraints associated with a mis-specified Optimum Currency Area. We are critical of this framework since it is incompatible with the policy sovereignty that is experienced, if not utilised, by sovereign economies such as the USA, UK and Australia. Second, recent and proposed policy reforms which generally lie within the constraints of the Eurozone framework are examined. We conclude that these policies are piecemeal and fail to restore policy sovereignty, which ultimately requires that member countries exit the Eurozone. Key issues associated with such an exit are briefly discussed.

This essay examines a significant event in Australia’s economic and labour relations history in which an industrial relations court acted against government policy but in line with the advice of professional economists to impose a general wage reduction. This determination, unique during the period of central wage fixation, was made as the country fell into deep depression in 1930–1931. Arguments that a reduction in purchasing power would exacerbate the depression did not prevail over expert economic advice that wage reduction would lessen the structural consequences of reduced rural export income. The Court determined that the loss of real national income had to be accommodated without a wider package of measures such as exchange rate depreciation or expansionary monetary and fiscal policies. The impressive endeavours of the Court to understand and respond to a difficult economic reality represented a significant elevation of the status of wages policy in macroeconomic management – one that was to last for 60 years.

This paper provides a preliminary review of the effrects of closed shop arrangements on trade unions. In doing os it addresses four hypotheses: whether the closed shop reduces union militancy; whether it leads to poorer services; whether it affects bargaining power; and whether it leads to increased membership.

The era of incomes policy agreements appears to have ended in Finland, with negotiations focused at sectoral and local levels, although this could change with a return to a Social Democratic-led Government. While representative systems of participation have not been abandoned, the authority of unions delegates at the workplace appears to have declined. There has also been a growth in direct forms of participation, initiated by management, and associated new forms of work organisation.

This article considers some of the policy issues at stake in the waterfront dispute, including an analysis of the factors that led to the dispute and a discussion of the likely outcomes of the new negotiated agreements. It concludes that the introduction of another competitor into the Australian stevedoring industry is relatively unlikely. Without such competition and in the face of 100 percent unionisation, it is not clear whether the short-run gains in productivity from the latest round of enterprise agreements will necessarily be sustained.

Contributing to the broader topic of minimum wage determination in developing countries, this article discusses the shaping and implementation of minimum wage policy in Papua New Guinea (PNG). It begins by outlining the institutional arrangements under which minimum wage rates are determined in PNG. It then critically examines the argument that wage levels in the country are unsustainably high – a claim that has perennially characterised Papua New Guinea (PNG) minimum wage fixing. The article argues that, on the contrary, wage levels are indeed low and not adequate to reasonably support a single worker, let alone a family in an urban setting. This counter-argument is discussed in the context of debates over minimum wage levels and their relationship to economic growth, employment creation, international competitiveness, and capacity to pay. Whilst focusing on the PNG wage fixing system, the article thus sheds light on the dilemmas and challenges facing wages policy generally in a developing country setting.

This article examines the economic, as opposed to social, effects of the Fightback package and concludes that both beneficial and adverse effects of the tax measures have been exaggerated. The switch from various taxes to a GST will increase efficiency but only slightly and will have a neglible effect on labour supply and savings. Adverse effects on small business and on federal financial relationships will not have a large impact on the economy. The superannuation proposals will probably reduce savings. The most important effect of the package may be to increase unemployment as a result of the emphasis on enterprise bargaining combined with a determination to prevent any rise in the rate of inflation following the introduction of a GST.

Extensive organisational downsizing and restructuring has occurred in many countries since the 1980s. The negative consequences for workers forced into unemployment are well recognised. However, a growing body of evidence suggests there are also substantial, though less obvious, negative effects on workers who are retained. These effects may include impaired teamwork and productivity, damaged social networks and diminished social support, negative attitudes to work, elevated work-life conflict, a greater prevalence of negative health behaviours and impaired physical and psychological health. A cluster of behavioural and health effects observed amongst retained workers, described as ‘survivor syndrome’, is characterised by demoralisation, risk aversion, diminished organisational commitment and poorer health. These negative effects may be moderated to some extent by factors such as personality, gender, organisational level and age. A focus on more specific research questions and methodological refinements are likely to enhance future research in this area.

In this paper, we introduce a unique dataset derived from a survey conducted among 450 Syrian refugee workers and the owners/managers of the firms in which they are employed in Istanbul, Turkey. We utilise this data to investigate the connection between the wage-productivity gap and perceived economic and social discrimination. The findings of the study indicate that individuals facing a wider wage-productivity gap tend to report higher levels of economic and social discrimination. These results remain consistent even after incorporating various variables at both the worker and firm levels into the analysis. These findings imply potential policy recommendations that policymakers should take into account.

The regulation of road transport supply chains has recently become a subject of international concern. A significant body of research shows that ensuring minimum rates of pay for truck drivers is important, not only to workers’ health and safety but also to achieving improved road safety outcomes and other policy objectives related to the viability of the road transport industry. For this study, we used an empirical analysis to quantitatively demonstrate the impact of South Korea’s Safe Rates System on factors of the work environment and driver behaviours that affect road safety. Specifically, we looked at the impact of the system on market structure, truck drivers’ monthly net income, average working time, time spent on maintenance, and the frequency of overloading, speeding, and drowsiness while driving. Our results suggest that increased rates of pay for owner truck drivers resulting from the implementation of the Safe Rates System led to a reduction in the average number of contracting steps between client companies who ship goods and the truck drivers who transport them, improvement in the level of market transparency, increased monthly income, decrease in total time worked, decrease in the frequency of overloading, speeding, and drowsiness while driving, and increase in time spent on vehicle maintenance. The level of compliance with the system by clients and transport companies also had an overall positive impact on the industry structure. By empirically demonstrating the system’s impact, our results provide statistical evidence useful to the debate on reintroduction of the Safe Rates System in Korea.

This paper focuses on the migrant pay gap in Spain. Going beyond descriptive evidence of the differences between immigrants and nationals in terms of wages, we analyse which part of the gross wage is most affected by features that cannot be captured using econometric models. Relying on microdata from the Wage Structure Survey, we divide the total gross wage into two main parts: base wage and wage supplements. Then we decompose the migrant wage gap into the explained and the unexplained terms, using a simple decomposition methodology, the Oaxaca-Blinder model. Our results show that a part of the differences in wage supplements does not seem to be explained by the set of control variables introduced in the model and that this effect is more pronounced when only men are considered. These findings offer a new perspective on the migrant pay gap in Spain and point to the importance of wage-setting practices related to wage supplements in explaining (and widening) the total migrant pay gap in our country.

We study the dynamics of the profit rate of United States (US) non-financial resident firms between 1945 and 2020. The 1970s entailed the abandonment of industrial policy and the liberalisation and globalisation of markets. This left the US-resident productive sector at the mercy of an unstoppable growth of imports. These imports helped to contain inflation but cornered the US domestic market, which negatively affected the profit rate of non-financial resident firms. The increasing foreign competition forced US-resident firms to invest and increase their productive capacity. Such increasing productive capacity demanded higher market shares; however, US-resident firms continued to lose domestic and foreign markets. This explains the fall in the degree of productive capacity utilisation, capital productivity, and ultimately, the rate of profit since the 1980s.