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Union Wages and Union Decline: Evidence from the Construction Industry

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  • Dale Belman
  • Paula B. Voos

Abstract

Two well-documented empirical findings are that unionized employees typically receive substantially higher compensation than their non-union counterparts and that union representation in the United States has declined over time. Some observers have hypothesized a causal link between these two phenomena: the achievement of a union wage premium, they argue, hastened union decline both by reducing union firms' economic competitiveness and by inducing employers to adopt various union avoidance strategies. Using data from the Current Population Survey and the Census Bureau's Census of Construction, the authors test this hypothesis for the construction industry. Even in estimations that allow for a lagged response and incorporate a variety of controls, they find no evidence that high union/nonunion wage ratios in construction in the 1970s or 1980s resulted in lower union membership in 2000.

Suggested Citation

  • Dale Belman & Paula B. Voos, 2006. "Union Wages and Union Decline: Evidence from the Construction Industry," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 60(1), pages 67-87, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:60:y:2006:i:1:p:67-87
    DOI: 10.1177/001979390606000104
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Barry T. Hirsch & David A. MacPherson, 2003. "Union Membership and Coverage Database from the Current Population Survey: Note," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 56(2), pages 349-354, January.
    2. Barry T. Hirsch & Edward J. Schumacher, 2001. "Private Sector Union Density and the Wage Premium: Past, Present, and Future ," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 22(3), pages 487-518, July.
    3. Freeman, Richard B, 1986. "The Effect of the Union Wage Differential on Management Opposition and Union Organizing Success," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 92-96, May.
    4. Rivers, Douglas & Vuong, Quang H., 1988. "Limited information estimators and exogeneity tests for simultaneous probit models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 347-366, November.
    5. Sami Daniel & Philip Arestis & John Grahl (ed.), 1999. "The History and Practice of Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1250.
    6. Robinson, Chris, 1989. "The Joint Determination of Union Status and Union Wage Effects: Some Tests of Alternative Models," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(3), pages 639-667, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Cihan Bilginsoy, 2013. "Union Wage Gap in the U.S. Construction Sector: 1983–2007," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 677-701, July.
    2. Kevin Duncan & Peter Philips & Mark Prus, 2014. "Prevailing Wage Regulations and School Construction Costs: Cumulative Evidence from British Columbia," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 593-616, October.
    3. Robert Pollin & Jeannette Wicks-Lim & Heidi Garrett-Peltier, 2009. "Green Prosperity: How Clean-Energy Policies Can Fight Poverty and Raise Living Standards in the United States," Published Studies green_prosperity, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    4. Changhui Kang & Myoung-jae Lee, 2014. "Estimation of Binary Response Models With Endogenous Regressors," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 502-530, October.

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