Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/252236 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15112
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
In Germany, employers used to pay union members and non-members in a plant the same union wage in order to prevent workers from joining unions. Using recent administrative data, we investigate which workers in firms covered by collective bargaining agreements still individually benefit from these union agreements, which workers are not covered anymore, and what this means for their wages. We show that about 9 percent of workers in plants with collective agreements do not enjoy individual coverage (and thus the union wage) anymore. Econometric analyses with unconditional quantile regressions and firm-fixed-effects estimations demonstrate that not being individually covered by a collective agreement has serious wage implications for most workers. Low-wage non-union workers and those at low hierarchy levels particularly suffer since employers abstain from extending union wages to them in order to pay lower wages. This jeopardizes unions' goal of protecting all disadvantaged workers.
Subjects: 
collective bargaining
union wage
uncovered workers
Germany
JEL: 
J31
J53
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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