Is Declining Union Membership Contributing to Low Wages Growth? Discussion

van Rens, Thijs (2019): Is Declining Union Membership Contributing to Low Wages Growth? Discussion. Published in: Reserve Bank of Australia annual conference , Vol. 2019, (1 August 2019)

Abstract

As union membership is declining, it is natural to ask whether this decline results in slower wage growth. The paper by James Bishop and Iris Chan (2019) studies this question in the context of the recent slowdown in wage growth in Australia and argues the answer is a clear “No”. It is a pleasure to discuss this paper, which not only adds to the discussion about the recent slowing in wage growth in Australia but makes some interesting contributions to the academic literature on unions as well.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Commentary on: Eprints 0 not found.
• Language: English
• Keywords: wage growth, unions
• Subjects: E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E2 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy > E24 - Employment ; Unemployment ; Wages ; Intergenerational Income Distribution ; Aggregate Human Capital ; Aggregate Labor Productivity; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J5 - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining > J51 - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects

References

Barrett, Garry (2018). The labor market in Australia, 2000-2016. IZA World of Labor, 443.

Bishop, James and Iris Chan (2019). Is Declining Union Membership Contributing to Low Wages Growth? RBA Research Discussion Paper 2019-02.

Elsby, Michael, Bart Hobijn and Aysegul Sahin (2013). The Decline of the U.S. Labor Share, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 44(2), pp. 1-63.

Farber, Henry S., Daniel Herbst, Ilyana Kuziemko and Suresh Naidu (2018). Unions and Inequality Over the Twentieth Century: New Evidence from Survey Data, Princeton University Industrial Relations Section Working Paper 620.

Haldane, Andy (2017). Work, Wages and Monetary Policy, speech given at the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford.

Hamermesh, Daniel S. (2017). The labor market in the US, 2000-2016. IZA World of Labor, 361.

Herz, Benedikt and Thijs van Rens (2018). The labor market in the UK, 2000-2016. IZA World of Labor, 422.