Collective bargaining and the police

Abstract

Analyzes the impact of collective bargaining on the supplemental compensation of employees in large police departments across the nation. Suggests that collective bargaining does make a difference in terms of economic benefits; hazardous duty pay, differential shift pay and educational incentive pay are all more likely to be present when the collective bargaining process is available, and merit pay (a more likely management prerogative policy) is less likely to be present. The correlation between collective bargaining and personnel policy varies greatly, however, when controls for fiscal capacity, organizational size, and region are added to the analysis. Geographic region turns out to constitute an important contextual variable deserving primary attention in future analyses of police personnel policies and practices.