Negotiated Wage Settlements Research Articles

The Effect of Bargaining Structure on Negotiated Wage Settlements

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of the structure of collective bargaining on union bargaining power. More specifically, its objective is to determine whether bargaining through employer's association, multi-employer, single (multi-plant) employer or single-plant negotiation units has had an effect on negotiated wage settlements (union wage changes) in the private sector in Canada.

Outcomes of Bargaining Structures in the Ontario and Saskatchewan Construction Industries

This article seeks to evaluate how legislations redesigning bargaining structures in the Ontario and Saskatchewan construction industry influenced employer and union organizations and to estimate its effects on strike activity, negotiated wage settlements and nonwage outcomes.

Arbitrator Behavior and the Variances of Arbitrated and Negotiated Wage Settlements

The variance of arbitrated wage settlements is significantly lower than the variance of negotiated wage settlements in a sample of teachers' contracts, even when possible selection of contracts into arbitration is accounted for. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that arbitrated settlements do not incorporate all of the information that is reflected in negotiated settlements.

The Effects of Product Market Competition on Collective Bargaining Agreements: The Case of Foreign Competition in Canada

In this paper we estimate the effect of the financial conditions of firms on negotiated wage settlements and on employment using a sample of Canadian collective bargaining agreements from 1965 to 1983. We find that ordinary least squares estimates of the effect of quasi-rents per worker on wages are positive but very small. However, we find a much larger effect when we instrument quasi-rents with measures of foreign competition shocks. We conclude that standard estimates of rent-sharing based on contract data seriously understate the impact of product market competition on negotiated wage settlements.

Wage rounds: A signalling interpretation

A new explanation for the high correlation between wage rates negotiated by firms belonging to the same industry is offered. Unions observe the price of the industry's output with error but they also use data from previously negotiated wage settlements in their negotiations. We show that negotiated wage rates tend to increase as the wage round proceeds.

Minimum Wages, Wage Inflation, and the Relative Wage Structure

This paper reports an analysis of the effect of changes in legislated minimum wages on negotiated wage increases, using micro data on Canadian labor contracts between 1966 and 1975. The analysis departs from previous studies in that it divides the sample data base into high- and low-wage sectors. The results indicate that union negotiated wage settlements reflect at least partially legislated minimum wage changes over the past contract period. However, this minimum wage effect is restricted to the low-wage sector. In addition, the sectoral results suggest that the relative wage structure should tend to narrow in the long run.

The Impact of the Anti-Inflation Board on Negotiated Wage Settlements: A Reply

to gauge changes in employment opportunities, as measured by quantity of newspaper advertisements. Perhaps this measure does accurately reflect changes in employment opportunities from one period to the next for a given region. However, comparison of index values across regions is meaningless, unless the number of vacancies was identical in all regions in 1969. The job vacancy survey data compiled by Denton, Feaver, and Robb (1975) indicate that this is unlikely.2 Consequently, variation across regions in labour market conditions is probably inaccurately measured by ACSW. Since the measurement error occurs in one of the explanatory variables for their regression model, in principle it should result in estimation bias, thus calling into question the validity of their reported results (Johnston, 1972, 281-2). In a preliminary version of this paper, which was presented at the 1978 meetings of the Canadian Economics Association, the authors had results based not only on the regionalized help-wanted index, but also on regionalized job vacancy rates derived from the job vacancy survey data compiled by Denton et al. Given the conceptual problem associated with the regionalized help-wanted index in the context of this study, it would seem preferable to base conclusions on the estimates obtained using the job vacancy series.

The Impact of the Anti-Inflation Board on Negotiated Wage Settlements: Comment

The Impact of the Anti-Inflation Board on Negotiated Wage Settlements: Comment

The Effect of Settlement Stage on Negotiated Wage Settlements in Canada

This paper analyzes the effect of the particular stage of wage settlement on the negotiated wage increase, using micro data on Canadian labor contracts between 1966 and 1975. The sample data base was divided into direct first-stage bargaining, mediation-conciliation, and work stoppage/arbitration, and structural wage equations were estimated for each set of data. The results indicate that as negotiations move from direct bargaining to work stoppage, labor market conditions, measured by a vacancy rate, become less important as an explanatory variable and price catch-up becomes more important.

The Effect of Settlement Stage on Negotiated Wage Settlements in Canada

The Effect of Settlement Stage on Negotiated Wage Settlements in Canada

The Effects of Strikes and Strike Length on Negotiated Wage Settlements

The Effects of Strikes and Strike Length on Negotiated Wage Settlements

The Impact of the Anti-Inflation Board on Negotiated Wage Settlements

This paper analyses the impact of the Anti-Inflation Board on wage settlements negotiated prior to any AIB-recommended wage rollbacks. During the first two years of AIB wage controls, union wage settlements in the private and public sectors have been between 2and 3A percentage points per annum lower than the pre-AIB wage structure would have predicted. By 1977Q3, the cumulative wage effect of the AIB is on the order of 3.2 per cent in the private and 4.6 per cent in the public sector. Using the framework developed by Lipsey and Parkin, it is found that the AIB wage guidelines were about 50 per cent effective in restraining wage increases (prior to any AIB wage r ollbacks). L'impact de la Commission Anti-Inflation sur le niveau des salaires negocies. Ce memoire a pour but principal d'analyser l'impact de la Commission Anti-Inflation sur le niveau des salaires n6gocies. L'etude s'attache aux niveaux n6goci6s entre les parties avant toute intervention gouvernementale recommendant ou ordonnant l'acceptation de niveaux plus bas aux termes de cette loi d'exception. Au cours des deux premieres ann6es d'op6ration de la CAI, il appert que les salaires negocies pour les syndiqu6s dans les secteurs prive et public ont et6 de 2a 32 points de pourcentage plus bas par ann6e que la structure de compensation de l'avant-cAI aurait pu le laisser pr6voir. Au troisieme trimestre de 1977, l'effet cumulatif de la Commission AntiInflation 6tait de l'ordre de 3.2 pour cent dans le secteur priv6 et de 4.6 pour cent dans le secteur public. Les auteurs utilisent le cadre de reference suggere par Lipsey et Parkin et arrivent a la conclusion que la Commission Anti-Inflation a et6 efficace dans l'ordre de 50 pour cent dans ses efforts pour reduire l'augmentation des salaires negocies en premiere instance.