scholarly journals The union and non-union wage differential in the New Zealand public service

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Goldie Feinberg-Danieli ◽  
Zsuzsanna Lonti
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Wage Differential ◽  
Union Wage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Wage Bargaining ◽  
Non Union ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
Employment Conditions ◽  
Considerable Impact ◽  
Conditions Of Employment

What do unions do? The major objective of unions is to improve the terms of conditions of employment for their members. At the same time, unions have a considerable impact on the employment conditions of not only their own members but non-unionised workers as well. One of the most important employment terms unions negotiate is wages. As a result, wage bargaining has been identified as a primary function of unions, and differences in wages between union and non-union members are considered an important measure of union power. In most countries this differential is called the ‘union/non-union’ wage differential. In New Zealand, however, there are employees who are union members but are not covered by collective agreements, contrary to the more common occurrence in other countries (e.g. the United States and Canada), where non-union members are often covered by collective agreements. Therefore, in New Zealand the differential should be more precisely called the ‘collective versus individual’ wage differential. In this article we focus on the raw ‘collective’ wage differential, but due to convention we still call it the ‘union’ wage differential.

scholarly journals Regression Results of the Union Impact on Pay  Levels in New Zealand Public Service

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Goldie Feinberg-Danieli
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Wage Differential ◽  
Union Wage ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Non Union ◽  
International Trends ◽  
Pay Differences ◽  
The Impact

<p>International studies almost uniformly conclude that union members receive higher wages than their non-union counterparts. This study investigates differences between collective and individual salaries using the New Zealand State Services Commission's Human Resources Capability Survey 2005. It explores the impact of collective bargaining on pay by controlling for a large number of employee and employer characteristics. As very little research has been carried out on the subject in New Zealand, I focused on the international literature in order to identify the major factors that explain the magnitude of union/non-union wage differential. Major industrial changes, which have shaped the NZ public service bargaining structure and its outcomes are identified. A range of statistical tests are used to examine the pay differences between collective and individual agreements in New Zealand public service. I, first, carry out basic comparisons of the average collective and individual wages across gender, employment type, occupations, ethnicity, age, employer size and tenure, followed by numerous multivariate regressions to work out the true contributing factors to the union/non-union wage differential. Finally, I analyze the results in the unique NZ context to allow new ideas and theory to emerge and compare it to international trends. Looking at the basic comparisons, I found that, in the New Zealand public service, employees on individual agreements earn significantly higher wages then those who are covered by collective agreements. However, multivariate analyses have revealed a different picture. The study found that occupational composition is the largest contributor to the variability in collective/individual pay in NZPS. With the exception of the senior, high skilled and specialised employees, no pay differential was found between collective or individual agreements in the New Zealand public service.</p>

scholarly journals Regression Results of the Union Impact on Pay  Levels in New Zealand Public Service

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Goldie Feinberg-Danieli
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Wage Differential ◽  
Union Wage ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Non Union ◽  
International Trends ◽  
Pay Differences ◽  
The Impact

<p>International studies almost uniformly conclude that union members receive higher wages than their non-union counterparts. This study investigates differences between collective and individual salaries using the New Zealand State Services Commission's Human Resources Capability Survey 2005. It explores the impact of collective bargaining on pay by controlling for a large number of employee and employer characteristics. As very little research has been carried out on the subject in New Zealand, I focused on the international literature in order to identify the major factors that explain the magnitude of union/non-union wage differential. Major industrial changes, which have shaped the NZ public service bargaining structure and its outcomes are identified. A range of statistical tests are used to examine the pay differences between collective and individual agreements in New Zealand public service. I, first, carry out basic comparisons of the average collective and individual wages across gender, employment type, occupations, ethnicity, age, employer size and tenure, followed by numerous multivariate regressions to work out the true contributing factors to the union/non-union wage differential. Finally, I analyze the results in the unique NZ context to allow new ideas and theory to emerge and compare it to international trends. Looking at the basic comparisons, I found that, in the New Zealand public service, employees on individual agreements earn significantly higher wages then those who are covered by collective agreements. However, multivariate analyses have revealed a different picture. The study found that occupational composition is the largest contributor to the variability in collective/individual pay in NZPS. With the exception of the senior, high skilled and specialised employees, no pay differential was found between collective or individual agreements in the New Zealand public service.</p>

Trade Unions and the Distribution of Paid Overtime

1991 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Miller ◽  
Charles Mulvey
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Wage Differential ◽  
Union Wage ◽  
Non Union ◽  
General Proposition ◽  
Premium Rates

The suggestion has been made by Mulvey (1986) that trade unions may be able to influence the allocation of work paid at premium rates in favour of their members and that this may partially explain the existence of a union/non-union differential in average hourly earnings in Australia. This paper investigates both the general proposition and its particular application to the union/non-union wage differential. with respect to the distribution of paid overtime. Analysis of the Australian Longi tudinal Survey reveals that, while unions do appear to influence the distribution of overtime in favour of their members, the effect is small and would account for only about one percentage point of the union/non-union wage differential.

Union Wage Determination in Canadian and U.S. Manufacturing, 1964–1990: A Comparative Analysis

ILR Review ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 673-689
Author(s):  
John W. Budd
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Real Wage ◽  
Union Wage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Wage Bargaining ◽  
Wage Determination ◽  
Nominal Wage ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Wage Change

The author analyzes nominal and real wage changes in unionized manufacturing firms in Canada and the United States over the years 1964–90. He finds more differences between the countries' patterns of wage determination in the years 1964–79 than have commonly been recognized. In the 1980s, the nominal wage determination structure changed more sharply in the United States than in Canada. Real wage determination changed little in the United States before 1986, while after 1986 observed real wage growth was significantly smaller than what would have been predicted based on patterns of bargaining in earlier years. In Canada, real wages in the 1980s were significantly higher than they would have been if the previous patterns of wage determination had persisted. Both the nominal and real wage change results suggest that unions in U.S. manufacturing fared poorly in wage bargaining in the 1980s by comparison with their Canadian counterparts.

scholarly journals Work Arrangements in New Zealand: First Results from the Survey of Working Life

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Barnes ◽  
Sharon Boyd ◽  
Sophie Flynn
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Employment Relationships ◽  
Work Arrangements ◽  
Employment Conditions ◽  
First Results ◽  
Permanent Employees ◽  
Household Labour ◽  
Conditions Of Employment

Work arrangements in New Zealand have changed substantially in the last 30 years, leading to increased diversity in contracting arrangements, hours and times worked, and terms and conditions of employment. This paper describes the current work arrangements, employment conditions and job satisfaction levels of employed people in New Zealander from data collected in the Survey of Working Life. The survey was run as a supplement to the Household Labour Force Survey in the March 2008 quarter, to answer questions such as: 'How prevalent is casual work in New Zealand?', 'How many employed people work non-standard hours?’ and 'Who is most likely to experience stress or discrimination at work?’ The focus o f the data analysis is to identify workers with different types of employment relationships (for example, temporary versus permanent employees), and describe the demographic and job characteristics associated with these different employment relationships. Working-time patterns and conditions of employment are the other key topics examined in this paper. It is intended that this supplement be repeated every three years to monitor changes in employment conditions, work arrangements and job quality in New Zealand.

scholarly journals Collective "Contracts" or Individual Status? Employment under Management-Union Agreements

1969 ◽  
pp. 243
Author(s):  
Alexander Szakats
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
The United States ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
Binding Force

In the following article Doctor Szakats discusses the nature of collective agreements in Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. With particular reference to New Zealand, Doctor Szakats examines the character and binding force of collective agreements and discusses whether "statute" or "contract" is the basis of employment for individual workers.

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