La negociación salarial en Uruguay: un modelo para analizar sus efectos

The main objective of this work was matching categories that emerge from collective bargaining with the industries surveyed by the Encuesta Continua de Hogares (ECH). This tool is useful to assess, among others, the effects of wage changes on average wages and wage differentials and the effective compliance with the agreements reached. Having made a match of nearly 60% of private employees, it is found that the percentage of workers with wages below the minimum agreed would be between 12.1% and 17.4% in 2006. As expected, the characteristics of workers with wages below the minimum are the following: the grade of compliance is higer outside the capital, among younger, decreases with the educational level and with the size of the company, not showing a close link to sex but the situation would be worse for women. Also, the average gap failure of 27% would indicate that the problem is of considerable magnitude. Finally, from a simulation exercise, it emerges that carrying out policies to promote greater compliance with the minimum agreed (both policies that promote greater formalization and greater control in formal enterprises), would achieve an increase in average income, particularly in the lower tail of the distribution, reducing wage dispersion.