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The Impact of Unions on Pay Levels in Lower-Skilled Jobs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

John Forth  and
Neil Millward
Neil Millward
Affiliation:
National Institute of Economic and Social Research
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Abstract

The decline in trade union influence over the past two decades raises the question of whether pay levels in lower-skilled jobs now lie outside the unions' sphere of influence, as tacitly acknowledged by their acceptance and later endorsement of the principle of the statutory minimum wage. This article examines pay levels among lower-skilled jobs in the private sector in Britain using the Workplace Employee Relations Survey of 1998. It shows that trade unions still had a positive impact upon pay levels in lower-skilled jobs and identifies those forms of unionism associated with the largest premiums. However, the article also shows that the activities of trade unions did little to counteract the forces generating the lowest levels of pay.

Type
Research Article
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 176 , April 2001 , pp. 76 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Footnotes

∗

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Economic and Social Research Council (Award: R000222917).

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