This thesis examines the influence of compulsory state arbitration and wages board systems on workplace industrial relations. Using an historical and comparative case study approach, the thesis researches workplace industrial relations at three firms operating in the metal industry between 1900 and 1929. A political economy perspective is employed to examine the interaction of institutional stnictures and economic and political processes in the regulation of the wage-effort bargain at the workplace. Key concepts are drawn from both mainstream industrial relations theory, in particular the Oxford School approach, and labour process theory. Drawing on the work of flanders, a distinction is made between the economic and political aspects of the wage-effort bargain through the differentiation of market relations and managerial relations. This thesis argues that arbitral and wages board systems interacted with a range of factors to shape and influence workplace industrial relations. In keeping with the political economy perspective, the thesis examines the economic, industry, technological, political, and institutional environment within which the three cases operated, identifying changes and trends in these factors during the period under review and their implications for workplace industrial relations. The three cases allowed a closer examination of the influence of these general trends on the development of workplace industrial relations. The cases demonstrate the diversity of the metals sector, each representing a different industry in that sector. Further, the cases differed in their geographic and jurisdictional location, allowing comparisons between Victoria and New South Wales to be made. An examination of the role of arbitral tribunals and wages boards argues that the tribunals used their ability to regulate and stabilise market relations to offset their intervention in managerial relations. In this respect the tribunals sought to engineer changes in managerial relations favourable to industry development and yet simultaneously obtain support from the unions through improvements in market relations. As a consequence of these conflicting objectives the tribunals often behaved in a contradictory manner. In addition, unintended consequences often flowed from tribunal regulation and were important in shaping events at the workplace. Thus while industrial tribunals sought to improve market relations, they inadvertently assisted workers to gain more influence over managerial relations. In each case the workplace was the site of much regulatory activity, whether initiated by management, unions or workers. However, the three cases each present a different pattern of workplace industrial relations in terms: of scope of regulation at the workplace; the role of unions; the nature of managerial strategy; the role of unions; and the implementation and enforcement of tribunals decisions. Moreover, the effect of arbitration and wages board systems at each workplace varied, with the influence of a particular matrix of industry, economic, technological and institutional conditions shaped at the workplace.

No description available.

Australian women’s participation in paid work has been and continues to be strongly influenced by gendered patterns of parental care. This thesis examines how children structure another dimension of economic stratification in Australia, hourly wages. Previous studies from the United States and Great Britain show women who care for children have lower wages than their childless counterparts and that this motherhood gap in pay is partly explained by mothers’ interruptions to employment and movement into part-time jobs. Outside the US and Britain fewer studies of the motherhood gap in pay have been undertaken. Compared to these two countries, Australia has lower maternal employment rates and higher rates of part-time work. These features may increase wage disparities between mothers and childless women in the Australian labour market. Australia, unlike Britain and the United States, has a history of centralised wage regulation, leading to a comparatively narrower wage distribution and a higher minimum wage. These institutional features may offer protection against downward wage mobility. This thesis investigates how motherhood influences the hourly wages of Australian women using panel data. Previous Australian research has documented static wage disparities, relying on cross-sectional data. My analysis draws on the first six waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey (2001-2006), a large, nationally representative panel survey. The thesis is comprised of three studies. First, I investigate the overall motherhood gap in pay in Australia in 2001. In aggregate, the mean wage of women with children is equal to that of childless women. After imputing a potential wage for mothers who are not employed, I show that the overall motherhood gap in pay would be considerably wider in Australia were fewer mothers to exit the labour force. This is because mothers without tertiary qualifications are less likely to be employed than mothers with a certificate, diploma or degree. Second, I use the panel design of HILDA to estimate female wage equations using fixed-effects regression. Controlling for differences in observed human capital, part-time work and unobserved heterogeneity, I find each child lowers wages by 6%. The analysis also reveals that mothers’ propensity to work part-time does not explain any of the Australian motherhood gap in pay. After incorporating detailed controls for time-varying job characteristics, I find that part-time wages are 14% higher than full-time wages. On average, the pay premium for part-time work more than offsets the pay penalty associated with one or two children. Third, I narrow my focus to Australian women experiencing a birth between 2001 and 2006, assessing whether the wage premium for part-time work extends to transitions at this point in the lifecourse. I investigate patterns of wage growth among mothers returning to employment within 3 years of a birth. My results reveal that Australian mothers who transition from full-time to part-time hours have significantly higher wage growth than mothers who remain in full-time employment. Taken together, my results suggest women’s part-time employment has a distinctive form in Australia. I find no evidence Australian mothers’ part-time employment constitutes a low-paid segment of the labour force. Isolating a causal explanation for the comparatively high wages of Australian women’s part-time employment is difficult, though two factors are likely to be important. First, Australian mothers’ participation in part-time employment rapidly increased during the 1970s and 1980s, a period when wages were largely regulated through collective agreements. Although wage determination has become more deregulated since the mid-1980s, the principle that part-time employees should receive pro rata wages does not appear to have been contested by Australian employers. This could be because demand for labour in feminised industries has remained strong. Second, decisions to remain attached to employment around childbirth could possibly be structured by the availability of part-time work. Rather than transition into a lower waged part-time job, Australian mothers may exit the labour force drawing on supports for stay-at-home mothers in the Australian family payment and taxation system. In the longer term, mothers who continue in part-time work may have fewer opportunities for upward mobility and flatter wage trajectories. As additional waves of HILDA become available, such divergences in wage trajectories will be able to be empirically investigated. This study examines female wages in a period of strong economic growth and low unemployment. Part-time employment may not be positively associated with wages in a macroeconomic context of lower demand for labour and rising unemployment. An interesting avenue for future research would be to compare how transitions into part-time work influence female wages across periods of strong and weak labour market growth.

<p>This thesis consists of three papers which evaluate the effects of the Adult Education Initiative (AEI) in Sweden relative to the vocational part of Labor Market Training (LMT).</p><p>Paper [I] studies unemployment incidence and unemployment duration for participants in the AEI relative to LMT. When evaluating the relative program effects on duration, one needs to take into account both the problem of selection and the fact that the outcome variable is right hand censored. The method used is an instrumental variable adaptation of the symmetrically trimmed least squares estimator. A bivariate probit model is used in order to study unemployment incidence. The results indicate a beneficial effect of the AEI relative to LMT on unemployment incidence, but longer duration in unemployment among the AEI participants.</p><p>Paper [II] uses annual wage earnings in 1999 to compare the AEI and LMT for individuals that do not continue in education following program completion. Two separate estimation methods are used, the classical selection model and the method of matching on the propensity score. The results of both methods indicate negative effects of the AEI relative to LMT on wage earnings. The earnings effect of the AEI for individuals with a weak position in the labor market is particularly poor, implying that the official target to assist those individuals appear not to have succeeded.</p><p>Paper [III] employs data for those enrolled in 1997 as well as 1998 to study the annual wage earnings of 1999 and 2000 and data on attachment to branches of employment before and after program. Data on branches of employment indicate less mobility among the AEI participants. This is largely due to a stronger attachment to the public service sector. The analysis of wage earnings of the sample enrolled in 1997, indicate that the effects on wage earnings tended to be more advantageous for the AEI in 2000 rather than 1999, possibly implying a lag in the effects of the program.</p>

<p>The Convention of the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, CEDAW, was approved by the UN general assembly in 1979 and Sweden was the first country to ratify it in 1980. This thesis investigates, firstly, the importance of CEDAW on Swedish legislation and on sentences passed by Swedish courts, and secondly the significance of the fact that the influence from CEDAW has been based on an assertation of existing norms and not on a transformation or incorporation. Finally this thesis examines if CEDAW is followed. It is only the workplace that is analysed and the focus is on recruitment and wages. CEDAW has little or no importance for Swedish courts of law or their sentences. Since the incorporation of CEDAW is in agreement with earlier established norms it cannot be in force in Swedish courts or within public authorities but is only indirectly in force as a complement to national law. To be in force CEDAW must be implemented by incorporation or transformation. The Swedish court system does not violate CEDAW, but it does not follow the convention either and, even if the result may be the same, this should be considered a discrepancy.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-109).

In the first chapter of this thesis, we investigate the impact of human capital and wage structure on the gender pay in a panel of European countries using a newly available and appropriate database for cross-country comparisons and a comparable methodology for each country. Our first question is : What role do certain individual characteristics and choices of working men and women play in shaping the cross-country differences in the gender pay gap? What is the exact size of the gender pay gap using the “more appropriate” database available for our purpose? Giving that there are mainly only two harmonized data-sets for comparing gender pay gap throughout Europe: the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) and the European Structure of Earning Survey (ESES). Each database having its shortages: the main weakness of the ECHP is the lack of perfect reliability of the data in general and of wages in particular. However the main advantage of this database is the panel-data dimension and the information on both households and individuals. The data of the ESES is, on the contrary, of a very high standard but it only covers the private sector and has a cross-sectional dimension. Furthermore only few countries are currently available : Denmark, Belgium, Spain, Ireland and Italy. We use the European Structure of Earning Survey (ESES) to analyse international differences in gender pay gaps in the private sector based on a sample of five European economies: Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Spain. Using different methods, we examine how wage structures, differences in the distribution of measured characteristics and occupational segregation contribute to and explain the pattern of international differences. Furthermore, we take account of the fact that indirect discrimination may influence female occupational distributions. We find these latter factors to have a significant impact on gender wage differentials. However, the magnitude of their effect varies across countries. In the second chapter, we analyse the persistence of the gender pay differentials over time in Europe and better test the productivity hypothesis by taking into account unobserved heterogeneity. Our second question is : What is the evolution of the pay differential between men and women over a period of time in Europe? And what is the impact of unobserved heterogeneity? The researcher here provides evidence on the effects of unobserved individual heterogeneity on estimated gender pay differentials. Using the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), we present a cross-country comparison of the evolution of unadjusted and adjusted gender pay gaps using both cross-section and panel-data estimation techniques. The analysed countries differ greatly with respect to labour market legislation, bargaining practices structure of earnings and female employment rates. On adjusting for unobserved heterogeneity, we find a narrowed male-female pay differential, as well as significantly different rates of return on individual characteristics. In particularly, the adjusted wage differential decreases by 7 per cent in Belgium, 14 per cent in Ireland, between 20-30 per cent Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain and of 41 per cent and 54 per cent in the UK and in Denmark respectively. In the third chapter, we investigate causes of the gender pay gap beyond the gender differences in observed and unobserved productive characteristics or simply the sex. Explanations of the gender pay gap may be the penalty women face for having children. Obviously, the motherhood wage penalty is relevant to larger issues of gender inequality given that most women are mothers and that childrearing remains a women’s affair. Thus, any penalty associated with motherhood but not with fatherhood affects many women and as such contributes to gender inequalities as the gender pay gap. Furthermore, the motherhood wage effect may be different along the wage distribution as women with different earnings may not be equal in recognising opportunities to reconcile their mother’s and earner’s role. This brings us to our third question. Our third question is : What is the wage effect for mothers of young children in the household? And does it vary along the wage distribution of women? This chapter provides more insight into the effect of the presence of young children on women’s wages. We use individual data from the ECHP (1996-2001) and both a generalised linear model (GLM) and quantile regression (QR) techniques to estimate the wage penalty/bonus associated with the presence of children under the age of sixteen for mothers in ten EU Member States. We also correct for potential selection bias using the Heckman (1979) correction term in the GLM (at the mean) and a selectivity correction term in the quantile regressions. To distinguish between mothers according to their age at the time of their first birth, wage estimations are carried out, separately, for mothers who had their first child before the age of 25 (‘young mothers’) and mothers who had their first child after the age of 25 (‘old mothers’). Our results suggest that on average young mothers earn less than non-mothers while old mothers obtain a gross wage bonus in all countries. These wage differentials are mainly due to differences in human capital, occupational segregation and, to a lesser extent, sectoral segregation between mothers and non-mothers. This overall impact of labour market segregation, suggests a “crowding” explanation of the family pay gap – pay differential between mothers and non-mothers. Nevertheless, the fact that we still find significant family pay gaps in some countries after we control for all variables of our model suggests that we cannot reject the “taste-based” explanation of the family gap in these countries. Our analysis of the impact of family policies on the family pay gap across countries has shown that parental leave and childcare policies tend to decrease the pay differential between non-mothers and mothers. Cash and tax benefits, on the contrary, tend to widen this pay differential. Sample selection also affects the level of the mother pay gap at the mean and throughout the wage distribution in most countries. Furthermore, we find that in most countries inter-quantile differences in pay between mothers and non-mothers are mainly due to differences in human-capital. Differences in their occupational and sectoral segregation further shape these wage differentials along the wage distribution in the UK, Germany and Portugal in our sample of young mothers and in Spain in the sample of old mothers. In the fourth chapter, we analyse the combined effect of motherhood and the family status on women’s wage. Our fourth question is : Is there a lone motherhood pay gap in Europe? And does it vary along the wage distribution of mothers? Substantial research has been devoted to the analysis of poverty and income gaps between households of different types. The effects of family status on wages have been studied to a lesser extent. In this chapter, we present a selectivity corrected quantile regression model for the lone motherhood pay gap – the differential in hourly wage between lone mothers and those with partners. We used harmonized data from the European Community Household Panel and present results for a panel of European countries. We found evidence of lone motherhood penalties and bonuses. In our analysis, most countries presented higher wage disparities at the top of the wage distribution rather than at the bottom or at the mean. Our results suggest that cross-country differences in the lone motherhood pay gap are mainly due to differences in observed and unobserved characteristics between partnered mothers and lone mothers, differences in sample selection and presence of young children in the household. We also investigated other explanations for these differences such as the availability and level of childcare arrangements, the provision of gender-balanced leave and the level of child benefits and tax incentives. As expected, we have found significant positive relationship between the pay gap between lone and partnered mothers and the childcare, take-up and cash and tax benefits policies. Therefore improving these family policies would reduce the raw pay gap observed.

No description available.

This thesis consists of three papers which evaluate the effects of the Adult Education Initiative (AEI) in Sweden relative to the vocational part of Labor Market Training (LMT). Paper [I] studies unemployment incidence and unemployment duration for participants in the AEI relative to LMT. When evaluating the relative program effects on duration, one needs to take into account both the problem of selection and the fact that the outcome variable is right hand censored. The method used is an instrumental variable adaptation of the symmetrically trimmed least squares estimator. A bivariate probit model is used in order to study unemployment incidence. The results indicate a beneficial effect of the AEI relative to LMT on unemployment incidence, but longer duration in unemployment among the AEI participants. Paper [II] uses annual wage earnings in 1999 to compare the AEI and LMT for individuals that do not continue in education following program completion. Two separate estimation methods are used, the classical selection model and the method of matching on the propensity score. The results of both methods indicate negative effects of the AEI relative to LMT on wage earnings. The earnings effect of the AEI for individuals with a weak position in the labor market is particularly poor, implying that the official target to assist those individuals appear not to have succeeded. Paper [III] employs data for those enrolled in 1997 as well as 1998 to study the annual wage earnings of 1999 and 2000 and data on attachment to branches of employment before and after program. Data on branches of employment indicate less mobility among the AEI participants. This is largely due to a stronger attachment to the public service sector. The analysis of wage earnings of the sample enrolled in 1997, indicate that the effects on wage earnings tended to be more advantageous for the AEI in 2000 rather than 1999, possibly implying a lag in the effects of the program.

The Convention of the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, CEDAW, was approved by the UN general assembly in 1979 and Sweden was the first country to ratify it in 1980. This thesis investigates, firstly, the importance of CEDAW on Swedish legislation and on sentences passed by Swedish courts, and secondly the significance of the fact that the influence from CEDAW has been based on an assertation of existing norms and not on a transformation or incorporation. Finally this thesis examines if CEDAW is followed. It is only the workplace that is analysed and the focus is on recruitment and wages. CEDAW has little or no importance for Swedish courts of law or their sentences. Since the incorporation of CEDAW is in agreement with earlier established norms it cannot be in force in Swedish courts or within public authorities but is only indirectly in force as a complement to national law. To be in force CEDAW must be implemented by incorporation or transformation. The Swedish court system does not violate CEDAW, but it does not follow the convention either and, even if the result may be the same, this should be considered a discrepancy.