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The Impact of Unions on Wages in Brazilian Manufacturing

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  • Jorge Saba Arbache

Abstract

The empirical literature on the impact of unions on wages has stressed two major conclusions. Firstly, unionised workers earn a wage premium when compared to comparable nonunionised workers. Secondly, the dispersion of wages within the union sector is lower than in the nonunion sector. We examine the validity of these findings in the context of a developing country labour market. Our results show that unionism does create a positive wage differential for male, semi-skilled workers with formal labour contracts in Brazilian manufacturing, and that, contrary to the common finding in the existing literature, wage dispersion is greater in the union sector. We show that these findings can be explained by the greater variance in the characteristics of unionised workers, the vulnerability of nonunionised workers to market conditions, and the structure of wage bargaining.

Suggested Citation

  • Jorge Saba Arbache, 1998. "The Impact of Unions on Wages in Brazilian Manufacturing," Studies in Economics 9805, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    • Handle: RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:9805
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Brändle, Tobias, 2024. "Unions and Collective Bargaining: The Influence on Wages, Employment and Firm Survival," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1457, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    2. Gordon Betcherman, 2012. "Labor Market Institutions : A Review of the Literature," World Bank Publications - Reports 12139, The World Bank Group.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects

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