Wage Movements Research Articles

한국 최저임금 담론정치에 관한 비판적 분석

This study examines the social movement's framing strategy and the changing discourse of the institution through the case of the minimum wage movement. The discourse politics of the minimum wage began in earnest in the 2000s and has continuously changed. Social movement organizations, especially the newly emerging labor movements have been actively producing new framings related to the minimum wage. Through the framing of ‘the minimum wage is the youth wage,’ the Youth Union has made the minimum wage a important social agenda connecting the issue with the precariousness of youth generation. The Part-time Workers’ Union’s ‘minimum wage into 10,000 won’ restructured the existing minimum wage discourse through a progressive framing, stimulating the formation of public opinion necessary for a sharp increase. However, the minimum wage movement failed to respond to the rapidly growing number of people opposing the increases. As a result, the impetus for raising the minimum wage was lost. Through the analysis, it was confirmed that the frames dispute with each other and are ultimately adopted among social movement sector. Institutional discourse acts as an environment that constrains social movements when they construct framing strategies, but social movements can change existing discourse even within these constraints.

Paying Living Wages in Supply Chains: The Effects of Uncertainties, Coordination, and Competition

The living wage (LW) movement is part of the fight against forced labor: It aims to ensure that workers receive an income that can cover their daily subsistence needs. Our study expands the current understanding of LW pay by shifting from the traditional labor-capital view to an operations and supply chain management perspective. We use a game theoretical approach to explore the different responses of two competing supply chains to LW accreditation. We find that a moderate LW standard allows for Pareto optimality where key stakeholders (i.e., manufacturers, retailers, consumers, and workers) have a collective interest in promoting the LW movement. From a multistakeholder lens, the LW movement is only sustainable if the LW standard is neither too aggressive nor too conservative. We further demonstrate the following points. (1) Not all types of uncertainties are harmful to supply chains with LW pay. Yield uncertainty slows down the progress of the LW movement, whereas demand uncertainty encourages the voluntary adoption of LW pay among all stakeholders. (2) Supply chain coordination may slow the adoption of voluntary LW pay, which implies that the classic coordination paradigm is not a panacea in alleviating the plight of underpaid workers. (3) From the perspective of competition intensity, greater monopsony power hinders the progress of the LW movement, and we provide evidence for the positive effects of a competitive environment on incentivizing voluntary LW pay.

Doprinos makroekonomske stabilnosti poslovanju privrede - primer Srbije

The paper analyses the results of the Serbian corporate sector in the period 2013-2022, starting with groups of companies classified by their activity, size, residency of the owner and market orientation. The paper concludes that all groups of companies benefitted from stability and that they used the opportunities created on this account. In the observed ten-year period, the Serbian corporate sector recorded growth in real operating income and operating profit of 5% (8.2% in the period since 2019) and 8.5% on average per annum. Employment rose at the annual trend rate of 3.9%, and export propensity also increased, on average by 2.5 structural points a year. Simultaneously, the average annual trend rate of real GDP growth measured 2.9%, which together supports the assessment of the importance of exports for economic growth. Wage movements also indicate the multiplicative impact of economic growth on the increase in household earnings from work - both in terms of average wage growth and employment gains. If we take a step forward and split the ten-year period into two five-year periods, we can see that the total calculated financial costs on account of interest rates and exchange rate gains/losses decreased by EUR 6.9 bn, making up 37% of the total increase in corporate net profit. This is not merely about the positive impact on corporate money flows, but also about how important they are for financial potential to be more efficiently translated into expansion and/or modernisation of existing and construction of new capacities in a stable and predictable business environment. This is only one part of the direct importance of price stability and relative stability of the exchange rate for successful business performance, growth, and employment.

Rural Labour Market Developments, Agricultural Productivity, and Real Wages in Bangladesh, 1950-2006

This paper provides an overview of recent developments in rural labour markets in Bangladesh and also examines the trends and movements of agricultural productivity and real wages with annual data for the period 1950-2006. The paper links the movements of agricultural real wages to macroeconomic developments in general and agricultural development in particular. As part of empirical investigation, the paper develops a simple model of agricultural real wages that depend on agricultural productivity. In order to examine the long-run relationship between agricultural productivity and real wages, the paper applies the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Bounds testing approach. Empirical results suggest that there exists a long-run relationship between agricultural productivity and real wages, and that agricultural productivity can be treated as a ‘long-run forcing variable’ in explaining agricultural real wages. In the dynamic specification of real wages, the coefficient on oneperiod lagged error-correction term bears the expected negative sign and is significant. The forecasting ability of the error correction model is satisfactory with respect to the level or the percentage change of real wages. The overall results are consistent with the findings of earlier studies that agricultural productivity is a key determinant of real wages in Bangladesh.

A new focus for left-wing Parties: The salience of low-wage work in the electoral manifestos of OECD countries

The recent mobilization by living wage movements and unions to raise minimum wages have put the issue of low-wage work at the center of political debates in several countries. To study the position of political parties on this issue, we use electoral manifestos from 18 western democracies from 1990 to 2019. The results show that left-wing parties mention much more often the issue of low-wage work than right-wing parties, especially in countries with a weak degree of corporatism. The different categories of respectively left- and right-wing parties are quite similar in their mentions of low-wage work issues. However, ecologist parties mention low-wage work issues less often than other left parties and radical left parties tend to make broad criticisms of low-wage work more often than center-left parties.

District health board engagement with the living wage movement: evidence from official information requests.

From a public health perspective, there is strong evidence that income is a major modifiable determinant of health. District health boards (DHBs), who were responsible for providing and/or funding regional health services across Aotearoa, are major employers. International literature suggests implementing a living wage strategy can improve health outcomes, contribute until July 2022 to the reduction of ethnic health inequities, and is ethical and socially responsible business practice. In February 2021, official information requests were sent to all DHBs to determine engagement with the living wage movement. This was augmented through a content analysis of publicly available collective employment contracts to benchmark practice. The review found no DHBs were registered living wage employers, nor is it a requirement of those whom they sub-contract. Two out of twenty DHBs are planning to become living wage employers, and several confirmed they were working collectively to improve working conditions of lower paid workers. This paper makes a scholarly argument for DHBs to commit to becoming living wage employers. As significant regional employers this is an opportunity for DHBs to positively contribute to the alleviation of entrenched poverty a modifiable determinant of ethnic health inequities.

¿Pico o meseta? La evolución de los salarios reales urbanos en Argentina durante la Primera Globalización (1898-1913)

In this essay, we propose a new estimation of Argentina’s real wages in the second phase of the first globalization (1895-1913). Using new sources of the period, we propose an estimation of the evolution in the price index and the wages of two urban labor categories in the economic structure (unskilled workers and skilled employees) for the Argentine provinces. The results tend to show a general growth in wages along the period. Between 1895 and 1903 this expansive dynamic is related to a big deflation episode after 1897 and the nominal wages recovery after the 1890 crisis. From 1904 to 1913, the wages grew slower, but the general index showed an improvement, related to a process of modernization on the labor structure, that resulted in a considerable skill level improvement among the workers. Provincial datasets show a wide diversity of trends at subnational level, including sharp rises, moderate increase and stagnation along the period. We suggest that this movement of wages is the result of an externality of an endogenous dynamic of the growth of regional economies.

Problems with the Living Wage Movement

The Living Wage Movement (LWM) should be evaluated on whether it enables more people, or people willing to work, to lead a decent life. But, first, to the extent that it succeeds in getting some workers up to that threshold it is likely to make it harder for other workers to do the same. Second, to the extent that it succeeds in getting some workers up to that threshold it is likely to make it harder for non-workers to do the same. The LWM is likely afflicted with these problems to a greater extent than is the Minimum Wage Movement.

Uticaj SMO u Ukrajini na GDP i inflaciju u EU sa osvrtom na Srbiju

SMO in Ukraine and the imposed sanctions have their own dangerous economic side effects: a) they seriously affect the existing level of GDP, both in Europe and in the world; b) Inflationary pressure, which was already elevated after the end of the Covid pandemic, began to increase uncontrollably, with varying intensity. Serbia is also not spared from the negative effects of SMO on its economy. Purpose: The war conflict in Ukraine showed that it is not possible to limit the economic (and not only them) consequences, to a certain territory. All this indicates that the global economic connection is great, and that the negative effects of the crisis are reflected on the economic community as a whole. Methodology: In the paper, using the method of content analysis, data available from primary sources. For the research in Serbia, official data from the NBS website were used, when it comes to the movement of GDP, the growth of consumer prices, as a key indicator for measuring inflation, and the movement of nominal wages expressed in euros. For the purposes of the research, an appropriate statistical method, regression, was used. The results of the research indicate a trend of GDP reduction under the influence of SMO and sanctions, both in the world and in Serbia. Inflationary pressure is getting stronger, continuously in all presented data that are the subject of research. The nominal growth of wages in Serbia was shown to be a consequence of inflationary pressure. The limits that exist in relation to this research are the existence of different scenarios for ending this crisis, which implies different conclusions about the measures that should be taken to mitigate it, given that the situation changes on a daily basis. Suggestions for future research are given in the conclusion.

Waiter, there’s a fly in my coffee!

Waiter, there’s a fly in my coffee!

The Shadow Margins of Labor Market Slack

AbstractWe use a mix of new and existing data to develop the Aggregate Hours Gap (AHG), a novel measure of labor market underutilization. Our measure differentiates individuals by detailed categories of labor market participation and uses data on their desired work hours as a measure of their potential labor supply. We show that desired hours vary widely by demographics and detailed labor force status, and that the gap between desired and actual work hours is strongly positively correlated with reported search effort. The AHG suggests a more sluggish labor market recovery since the Great Recession than either the official unemployment rate or alternative measures of labor market underutilization. Modest amounts of underutilization among the part‐time employed and a substantial degree of underutilization among those out of the labor force account for the disparity. The AHG also does well in accounting for wage movements over our sample period.

The Impact of Chinese Imports on Indian Wage Inequality

The paper seeks to address the growing inequality in wages between skilled and unskilled workers and between male and female workers in India due to a growing import surge from China. The study on wage movements of skilled versus unskilled workers helps us to understand how imports from India’s largest trade partner have contributed to relative factor returns in the country’s most abundant factor of production. The consideration of wage divergence between male and female workers helps us in determining how significant China’s trade is in addressing gender inequality in India’s labour market. Our analysis reveals that the import surge from China has minor effects on the growing wage difference between skilled and unskilled workers. However, the effect of the Chinese import surge on wage divergence between male and female workers is significant. The existing literature on the effects of international trade on India labour market is largely silent on the considered aspects.

What can we learn about household consumption expenditure from data on income and assets?

A major difficulty faced by researchers who want to study the consumption and savings behavior of households is the lack of reliable panel data on household expenditures. One possibility is to use surveys that follow the same households over time, but such data are rare and they typically have small sample sizes and face significant measurement issues. An alternative approach is to use the accounting identity that total household spending is equal to income plus capital gains minus the change in wealth over the period. The goal of this paper is to examine the advantages and difficulties of using this accounting identity to construct a population panel data with information on household expenditure. To derive such measures of consumption expenditure, we combine several data sources from Norway over the period 1994–2014. This allows us to link tax records on income and wealth to other administrative data with information on financial and real estate transactions. Using this data, we derive household expenditure from the accounting identity, before assessing the sensitivity of this measure of consumption expenditure to the assumptions made and the data used. We then compare our measures of household expenditure to those reported in expenditure surveys and to the aggregates from national accounts. We also illustrate the research opportunities arising from the derived measures of consumption expenditure through two applications: the first is an examination of how relative wage movements among birth cohorts and education groups affected the distribution of household expenditure, while the second is a study of the transmission of income shocks to household consumption.

Cohort risk sharing in Pakistan: Relative wage and consumption movements over time

This study analyzes to which extent the distribution of consumption is affected by the relative wage movement among birth cohorts and education groups. Our empirical design is based on a synthetic panel constructed using repeated cross-sectional data from “Household Integrated Economic Survey of Pakistan.” We limit our analysis to persons aged between 26 to 50 years at the time of survey. To see the evolution of change in income and consumption we measured growth by taking 6, 8- and 10-years’ difference respectively. The findings ascertained there is limited risk-sharing across cohort-education groups in Pakistan, but the measured extent of risk-sharing increases over longer horizons. Furthermore, we observe relatively higher consumption smoothing among the less educated people over the period of ten years. In the university education group, results reveal less consumption smoothing in the shorter, six- and eight-year time periods. The study concludes that the relative risk-sharing over a decade is better in Pakistan than the shorter growth horizon.

Analyzing the level of wages in the Astrakhan Oblast

Subject. The article considers theoretical aspects of nominal, accrued, real, and disposable wages and savings in the Astrakhan Oblast in various areas of economic activity. Objectives. The study aims to review movements in wages and their level, develop methods for assessing wages, calculate and analyze real wages and savings in the Astrakhan Oblast. Methods. The study draws on the analysis of data on the number of employees and their wages and salaries in the Astrakhan Oblast, which are provided by the Office for National Statistics, and the calculation of indicators based on these data. Results. We analyzed trends in wage increase and the number of employed population in the Astrakhan Oblast. The paper systematizes theoretical aspects of wage assessment, presents calculated indicators of real wages and savings of the employed population. The indicators of savings are divided into groups reflecting the level of household wealth. We provide diagrams illustrating the demand for labor in the Astrakhan Oblast. The findings may be useful for the analysis of living standard in the said area, its socio-economic level. They are also helpful for formulating directions for the region's development. Conclusions. Despite the growth of nominal wages in most spheres of economic activity, more than half of the population of the Astrakhan Oblast do not have incomes to satisfy all their social and spiritual needs, since a large portion of income goes to the minimum needs of subsistence, payment for utilities, cellular communication services and internet, and transport.

INSTITUTIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT IN SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEM OF MODERN UKRAINE

Topicality. The actuality of problem is due to the fact that over the years of the Ukrainian economy transformation, market institutions have been created, and development institutions have not.
 Aim and tasks. The aim of the study is to identify the basic institutions that promote development, and to study the specificity of their functioning in modern Ukraine. Research results. Research shows that in the institutional system of developed countries, the main social institution that initiates progress of the economy is trade union. Trade unions are seeking for a wage increase that encourages employers to introduce in their enterprises inventions that supplant labour, to raise the technical level of their companies. The creation of such trade unions in modern Ukraine is difficult, because this institutional niche is already occupied by trade unions inherited from the Soviet system, where they did not solve the problems of labour cost and working time, their activities were limited to mass cultural work. This is what they continue to do in modern Ukraine. This conclusion is based on a study of the status of collective labour disputes, wage arrears and real wage movements for the period 2013-2018. Comparison of these indicators shows that with a marked fall in real wages and rising debt, protest activity in the labour market did not increase. Ukrainian labour collectives very rarely use such form of resolution of labour conflicts as a strike. Despite the deterioration of the financial status of workers during this period, even the number of hours not worked on average per worker involved in the strike is insignificant. And in 2017, when statistics recorded the maximum number of businesses and organizations that went on strike, that is, 23, the average number of hours not worked per strike worker was only 66. Note that in 2015, extreme in terms of deterioration of the financial status of persons employed, the number of unresolved labour disputes decreased to a minimum value of 34.8% for the whole studied period. It is also significant that only one collective labour dispute was resolved in 2013 and one in 2015 as a result of the strike. Such paradoxical evidence that the deterioration of the financial position of workers, the growth of unresolved labor conflicts and demands of workers does not lead to an intensification of the struggle of trade unions and the radicalization of their actions, indicate that trade unions behave is radically different from the way known in developed countries. Economic development largely depends not only on economic institutions but also on political ones. Political parties are the most important among them. Political parties in Ukraine have not yet formed as ideological organizations. This has made political parties such a social institution that has little influence on economic development. Thus, in the modern institutional system of Ukraine, the main social institutions, that are trade unions and political parties, have little influence on economic development. Сinclusion. Changes in the institutional system are possible only if there are social forces interested in such changes and able to implement them.

Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap: Creating 'hospitable wages' through the Living Wage Movement

Abstract This conceptual article calls for a greater recognition of wages in academic and media discussions of hospitality and tourism employment. The article draws on the New Zealand hospitality and tourism context, but places the discussion in an international perspective as well. The article approaches the topic of low wages in a new way, arguing that rather than being an inevitable outcome of structural factors, improving wages can be an 'engine' for reducing turnover and becoming employers of choice, and significantly improving employees lives. The article conceptualizes a 'hospitable wage', defined as a wage that incorporates genuine care and consideration of well-being for a level of care that hospitality employers would expect their staff to apply to guests. The concept of a hospitable wage is differentiated from the constructs of minimum wage, fair wage and the living wage. The article concludes by proposing that the Living Wage Movement is a practical and pragmatic way to operationalize a hospitable wage and thereby potentially improve conditions for employers and employees alike.

The Shadow Margins of Labor Market Slack

We use a mix of new and existing data to develop the Aggregate Hours Gap (AHG), a novel measure of labor market underutilization. Our measure differentiates individuals by detailed categories of labor market participation and uses data on their desired work hours as a measure of their potential labor supply. We show that desired hours vary widely by demographics and detailed labor force status, and that the gap between desired and actual work hours is strongly positively correlated with reported search effort. The Aggregate Hours Gap suggests a more sluggish labor market recovery since the Great Recession than either the official unemployment rate or alternative measures of labor market underutilization. Modest amounts of underutilization among the part-time employed and a substantial degree of underutilization among those out of the labor force account for the disparity. The Aggregate Hours Gap also does well in accounting for wage movements over our sample period.

How are wage developments passed through to prices in the euro area? Evidence from a BVAR model

ABSTRACT This paper explores the transmission mechanism between wages and prices in the euro area. While labour costs account for notable parts of companies’ costs and should, hence, be of relevance for the developments in inflation, the empirical literature suggests only a loose link between the variables. From a theoretical perspective there are at least two broad categories of channels of how labour costs and prices can be linked, namely the supply-side channel of cost push inflation and the demand-side channel of demand pull inflation. This paper develops a BVAR model for the wage-price pass-through in the euro area and analyses how supply and demand shocks that trigger these two types of inflation are transmitted between wages and prices along the cost side of the economy. The main results can be summarized as follows: First, the wage-price pass-through in the euro area is shock-dependent. Second, the pass-through of wages to prices appears to have undergone some changes over time. Third, the pass-through appears to differ across HICP components. Finally, historical decompositions show that the identified shocks are of relevance for the movements of wages and prices in the euro area.

Price rigidities and the relative PPP

We measure the proportion of real exchange rate movements accounted for by cross-country movements in relative reset prices (prices that changed since the previous period) using CPI microdata for five countries. Relative reset prices account for almost all of the real exchange rate movements. This is a challenge for most workhorse sticky price models used to generate volatile and persistent real exchange rates, in which relative reset prices are sluggish. Models where movements in relative wages are persistent and track the nominal exchange rate do replicate both the empirical properties of the real exchange rate and of relative reset prices.