IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/epa/cepawp/2019-02.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why American Older Workers Have Lost Bargaining Power

Author

Abstract

The bargaining power of workers cannot be measured directly, but it can be inferred from working conditions and institutional factors. This study documents the stagnation in older workers' wages and the seven reasons older workers have lost bargaining power. Five factors relate to monopsony exposure from eroding retirement income security, union loss, more insecure employment relationships, persistent age discrimination, and geographical immobility. Two additional factors -- older workers' ineligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); and older workers' relative propensity to work for smaller firms – also weaken bargaining power. Significant loss of bargaining power of workers over age 55 who are projected to fill 6.4 million of the 11.4 million net new jobs created between 2016 and 2026 could suppress wages and working conditions for all workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Teresa Ghilarducci & Aida Farmand, 2019. "Why American Older Workers Have Lost Bargaining Power," SCEPA working paper series. 2019-02, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    • Handle: RePEc:epa:cepawp:2019-02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.economicpolicyresearch.org/images/docs/research/retirement_security/bargaining-power-wp.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Teresa Ghilarducci & Michael Papadopoulos & Anthony Webb, 2018. "The Growth of Unstable and Low-Wage Work Among Older Workers," SCEPA policy note series. 2018-03, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    2. David Autor & David Dorn & Lawrence F Katz & Christina Patterson & John Van Reenen, 2020. "The Fall of the Labor Share and the Rise of Superstar Firms [“Automation and New Tasks: How Technology Displaces and Reinstates Labor”]," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 135(2), pages 645-709.
    3. Henry Hyatt & Erika McEntarfer & Ken Ueda & Alexandria Zhang, 2016. "Interstate Migration and Employer-to-Employer Transitions in the U.S.: New Evidence from Administrative Records Data," Working Papers 16-44, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    4. Robert L. Clark & Steven Nyce & Beth Ritter & John B. Shoven, 2019. "Employer Concerns and Responses to an Aging Workforce," NBER Working Papers 25572, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Matthew J. Bidwell, 2013. "What Happened to Long-Term Employment? The Role of Worker Power and Environmental Turbulence in Explaining Declines in Worker Tenure," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(4), pages 1061-1082, August.
    6. J. R. Hicks, 1963. "The Theory of Wages," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-00189-7.
    7. Bruce E. Kaufman, 2007. "The impossibility of a perfectly competitive labour market," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 31(5), pages 775-787, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Will the US Pandemic Response Strengthen Workers?
      by Teresa Ghilarducci in Project Syndicate on 2020-03-25 11:37:27

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jacobo, Juan, 2022. "A multi time-scale theory of economic growth and cycles," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 143-155.
    2. Andrea Borsato, 2021. "An Agent-based Model for Secular Stagnation in the USA: Theory and Empirical Evidence," LEM Papers Series 2021/09, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    3. Francesco Bloise & Irene Brunetti & Valeria Cirillo, 2022. "Firm strategies and distributional dynamics: labour share in Italian medium-large firms," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(2), pages 623-655, July.
    4. Ensar Yılmaz & Zeynep Kaplan, 2022. "Heterogeneity of market power: firm-level evidence," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 1207-1228, May.
    5. Patrick Mellacher, 2021. "Growth, Concentration and Inequality in a Unified Schumpeter Mark I + II model," Papers 2111.09407, arXiv.org.
    6. Vallés, Javier & Salas Fumás, Vicente & San Juan, Lucio, 2022. "Corporate economic profits in the euro area: The relevance of cost competitive advantage," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 569-585.
    7. Kyoji Fukao & Cristiano Perugini, 2021. "The Long‐Run Dynamics of the Labor Share in Japan," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(2), pages 445-480, June.
    8. Alessandra Bonfiglioli & Rosario Crinò & Gino Gancia, 2018. "Firms and Economic Performance: A view from Trade," Working Papers 1034, Barcelona School of Economics.
    9. Francesco Amodio & Nicolás de Roux, 2021. "Labor Market Power in Developing Countries: Evidence from Colombian Plants," Documentos CEDE 019267, Universidad de los Andes – Facultad de Economía – CEDE.
    10. Steven Bond‐Smith, 2022. "Discretely innovating: The effect of limited market contestability on innovation and growth," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 69(3), pages 301-327, July.
    11. Alon, Titan & Berger, David & Dent, Robert & Pugsley, Benjamin, 2018. "Older and slower: The startup deficit’s lasting effects on aggregate productivity growth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 68-85.
    12. Vasco M. Carvalho & Basile Grassi, 2019. "Large Firm Dynamics and the Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(4), pages 1375-1425, April.
    13. Lütkenhorst, Wilfried, 2018. "Creating wealth without labour? Emerging contours of a new techno-economic landscape," IDOS Discussion Papers 11/2018, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    14. Benoît Lyrette & Paul-Martel Roy, 1992. "Le régime des décrets favorise-t-il la paix industrielle? L'expérience des activités manufacturières québécoises, 1980-1988," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 18(3), pages 261-274, September.
    15. Ryuzo Sato & Tamaki Morita, 2009. "Quantity Or Quality: The Impact Of Labour Saving Innovation On Us And Japanese Growth Rates, 1960–2004," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 60(4), pages 407-434, December.
    16. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/6q707l4svn8k3bt630nhgdqgdu is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Charles Ka Yui Leung & Joe Cho Yiu Ng & Edward Tang, 2020. "Why is the Hong Kong Housing Market Unaffordable? Some Stylized Facts and Estimations," Globalization Institute Working Papers 380, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    18. Jaanika Meriküll & Maryna Tverdostup, 2020. "The Gap That Survived The Transition: The Gender Wage Gap Over Three Decades In Estonia," University of Tartu - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Working Paper Series 127, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia).
    19. Michael Palanski & Alexander Newman & Hannes Leroy & Celia Moore & Sean Hannah & Deanne Den Hartog, 2021. "Quantitative Research on Leadership and Business Ethics: Examining the State of the Field and an Agenda for Future Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 109-119, January.
    20. Francisco Queiros, 2018. "Asset Bubbles and Product Market Competition," 2018 Meeting Papers 462, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    21. Fernández-Villaverde, Jesús & Mandelman, Federico & Yu, Yang & Zanetti, Francesco, 2021. "The “Matthew effect” and market concentration: Search complementarities and monopsony power," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 62-90.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    working conditions; wages; bargaining power;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General
    • J58 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:epa:cepawp:2019-02. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cenewus.html .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bridget Fisher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cenewus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.