How a Wage Bill Hill Creates a Wage Rate Floor

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Simona Jokubauskaitė ◽

Alyssa Schneebaum

Keyword(s):

Survey Data ◽

Time Use ◽

Opportunity Cost ◽

Wage Rate ◽

Economic Value ◽

Household Work ◽

Improved Method ◽

A Value ◽

Online Platforms ◽

Time Use Survey

AbstractWe propose an improved method to assess the economic value of unpaid housework and childcare. Existing literature has typically assigned a minimum, generalist or specialist’s wage, or the performer’s opportunity cost to the hourly value of these activities. Then it was used to calculate macro-level value based on the number of hours spent in this work. In this paper, instead of imputing an average or minimum wage for housework and childcare to determine a value to the work, we use the actual local wage rate requested for these services from providers on online platforms. Applying this method to Austrian Time Use Survey data shows that the value of unpaid childcare and housework, had it been paid, would be equivalent to about 22% of the 2018 GDP.

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Farm wages and public works

Indian Growth and Development Review ◽

10.1108/igdr-06-2013-0025 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 19-72 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Kanika Mahajan

Keyword(s):

Theoretical Model ◽

Wage Rate ◽

Fixed Effects ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Wage Growth ◽

State Level ◽

Random Allocation ◽

Farm Sector ◽

Content Type ◽

The Impact

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) on farm sector wage rate. This identification strategy rests on the assumption that all districts across India would have had similar wage trends in the absence of the program. The author argues that this assumption may not be true due to non-random allocation of districts to the program’s three phases across states and different economic growth paths of the states post the implementation of NREGS. Design/methodology/approach – To control for overall macroeconomic trends, the author allows for state-level time fixed effects to capture the differences in growth trajectories across districts due to changing economic landscape in the parent-state over time. The author also estimates the expected farm sector wage growth due to the increased public work employment provision using a theoretical model. Findings – The results, contrary to the existing studies, do not find support for a significantly positive impact of NREGS treatment on private cultivation wage rate. The theoretical model also shows that an increase in public employment work days explains very little of the total growth in cultivation wage post 2004. Originality/value – This paper looks specifically at farm sector wage growth and the possible impact of NREGS on it, accounting for state specific factors in shaping farm wages. Theoretical estimates are presented to overcome econometric limitations.

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A Family Wage-Rate vs. A Family Social Endowment Fund

Social Forces ◽

10.1093/sf/6.1.120 ◽

1927 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 120-125

Author(s):

E. Stewart

Keyword(s):

Wage Rate ◽

Endowment Fund ◽

Family Wage

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Market Imperfections and Income Distribution

The B E Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy ◽

10.1515/bejeap-2015-0071 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 1147-1167

Author(s):

Ensar Yılmaz

Keyword(s):

Labor Market ◽

Income Inequality ◽

Income Distribution ◽

Labor Markets ◽

Wage Rate ◽

Consumption Patterns ◽

Market Imperfections ◽

Luxury Goods ◽

Sector Model ◽

Two Sectors

Abstract This paper aims to search links between market imperfections and functional income distribution. For this purpose we construct a two-sector model – wage goods and luxury goods producing sectors – incorporating imperfections of the product and labor markets under income inequality. In a structure with interdependent and partially monopolistic and competitive markets, we analytically trace up the effects of the changes in power relations proxied by the degree of mark-ups in the product and labor market. The model shows that price and wage mark-ups in two sectors have crucial income distribution implications for the agents in the economy to varying extents. It also demonstrates the effect of the existence of the differentiated consumption patterns arising from income inequality on income distribution. Furthermore, it seems that unemployment level creates externalities on wage rate and on corporate taxes of firms.

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The dollar, trade, technology and inequality in the USA

National Institute Economic Review ◽

10.1177/002795019816600110 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 166 ◽

pp. 78-86 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Bob Anderton ◽

Paul Brenton

Keyword(s):

Technological Change ◽

Relative Wage ◽

Skilled Workers ◽

Wage Bill ◽

Sudden Rise ◽

The Us ◽

The Usa ◽

Trade Competitiveness ◽

The Impact ◽

High Skill

The US experienced a considerable increase in inequality between skilled and less-skilled workers during the early 1980s—a period which corresponds with a large temporary appreciation of the dollar. This article investigates the reasons behind this rise in inequality by evaluating the impact of trade with low-wage countries (LWCs) and technological change on the wage bill share of skilled workers (which is designed to capture movements in inequality arising from changes in both the relative wage and employment opportunities of the less-skilled). We find that an increase in US imports from LWCs—encouraged by the large appreciation of the dollar in the early 1980s—seems to explain some of the rise in US inequality in low-skill-intensive sectors, but that technological change (proxied by R&D expenditure) explains the rise in inequality in high-skill-intensive sectors. However, given that the timing of the sudden rise in US R&D expenditure corresponds with the appreciation of the dollar, it may be the case that the deterioration in US trade competitiveness during this period contributed to the rapid increase in the rate of technological change via mechanisms such as ‘defensive innovation’. Hence one might also argue that the technology-based explanation for the rise in US inequality could actually be a trade-based explanation.

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