Minimum Wage Regimes: Statutory Regulation, Collective Bargaining and Adequate Levels

304 Pages·2021·18.606 MB·English

by  Irene Dingeldey, Damian Grimshaw, Thorsten Schulten

Minimum Wage Regimes
This book goes beyond traditional minimum wage research to investigate
the interplay between different country and sectoral institutional settings
and actors’ strategies in the field of minimum wage policies.
It asks which strategies and motives, namely free collective bargaining,
fair pay and/or minimum income protection, are emphasised by social
actors with respect to the regulation and adaptation of (statutory) minimum
wages. Adopting an actor-centred institutionalist approach, and employ-
ing cross-country comparative studies, sector studies and single country
accounts of change, the book relates institutional and labour market set-
tings, actors’ strategies and power resources with policy and practice out-
comes. Looking at the key pay equity indicators of low wage development
and women’s over-representation among the low paid, it illuminates our
understandings about the importance of historical junctures, specific con-
stellations of social actors, and sector- and country-specific actor strategies.
Above all, it underlines the important role of social dialogue in shaping an
effective minimum wage policy.
This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and policy-mak-
ers and practitioners in industrial relations, international human resource
management, labour studies, labour market policy, inequality studies, trade
union studies, European politics and political economy.
Irene Dingeldey is Director of the Institute Labour and Economy at the Uni-
versity of Bremen, Germany.
Damian Grimshaw is Professor of Employment Studies at King’s College
London, UK, and Associate Dean for Research Impact.
Thorsten Schulten is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Economic and
Social Research (WSI) at the Hans Böckler Foundation, and Head of the
WSI Collective Agreement Archive. He is also an honorary professor at the
University of Tübingen, Germany.
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Minimum Wage Regimes
Statutory Regulation, Collective Bargaining and Adequate Levels
Edited by Irene Dingeldey, Damian Grimshaw and Thorsten Schulten
Minimum Wage Regimes
Statutory Regulation, Collective
Bargaining and Adequate Levels
Edited by Irene Dingeldey, Damian
Grimshaw and Thorsten Schulten
First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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business
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, Irene Dingeldey, Damian
Grimshaw and Thorsten Schulten; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of Irene Dingeldey, Damian Grimshaw and Thorsten
Schulten to be identified as the authors of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dingeldey, Irene, editor. | Schulten, Thorsten, 1966- editor. |
Grimshaw, Damian, editor.
Title: Minimum wage regimes : statutory regulation, collective
bargaining and adequate levels / edited by Irene Dingeldey, Damian
Grimshaw and Thorsten Schulten.
Description: Abingdon Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. |
Series: Routledge research in comparative politics | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Subjects: LCSH: Minimum wage–Government policy. | Minimum
wage.
Classification: LCC HD4917 .M568 2021 (print) | LCC HD4917
(ebook) | DDC 331.2/3–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057558
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057559
ISBN: 978-1-138-39238-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-02246-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-40223-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables ix
List of boxes xi
List of contributors xii
Acknowledgements xvii
1 Introduction: Minimum wage regimes in Europe and selected
developing countries 1
IRENE DINGELDEY, THORSTEN SCHULTEN AND DAMIAN GRIMSHAW
2 Minimum wages and the multiple functions of wages 17
JILL RUBERY, MATHEW JOHNSON, DAMIAN GRIMSHAW
PART I
Actors’ strategies influencing collective bargaining and minimum
wage regulations at national level in European countries 37
3 Securing wage floors in the absence of a statutory minimum
wage: Minimum wage regulations in Scandinavia facing
low-wage competition 39
KRISTIN ALSOS AND LINE ELDRING
4 Minimum wages in Southern Europe: Regulation and
reconfiguration under the shadow of hierarchy 64
OSCAR MOLINA
5 Shaping minimum wages in Central and Eastern Europe: Giving up
collective bargaining in favour of legal regulation? 87
MARTA KAHANCOVÁ AND VASSIL KIROV
vi Contents
PART II
The combined effects of minimum wages and collective
bargaining in different sectors 113
6 The interplay of minimum wages and collective bargaining
in Germany: How and why does it vary across sectors? 115
GERHARD BOSCH, THORSTEN SCHULTEN AND CLAUDIA WEINKOPF
7 Downward convergence between negotiated wages and
the minimum wage: The case of the Netherlands 137
WIKE BEEN, PAUL DE BEER AND WIEMER SALVERDA
8 The SMIC as a driver for collective bargaining: The interplay
of collective bargaining and minimum wage in France 162
NOÉLIE DELAHAIE AND CATHERINE VINCENT
PART III
The minimum wage beyond Europe: An accomplishment or
an alternative to collective bargaining? 189
9 Minimum wages in Indonesia: Informality, politics and
weak trade unions in a large middle-income country 191
MAARTEN VAN KLAVEREN
10 Are minimum wages for textile and garment industry workers
effective? A sector-in-country institutionalist approach for five
developing countries 206
DAMIAN GRIMSHAW AND RAFAEL MUÑOZ DE BUSTILLO
11 Minimum wages and inequality mitigation in post-dictatorship
industrial relations systems in Latin America:
The case of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay 235
ELIZARDO SCARPATI COSTA AND MARTA KAHANCOVÁ
PART IV
Conclusion: Lessons for theory and practice 257
12 Conclusion: Understanding the multiple interactions between
institutions of minimum wages and industrial relations 259
DAMIAN GRIMSHAW, IRENE DINGELDEY, THORSTEN SCHULTEN
Index 281
Figures
1.1 Collective bargaining coverage (in %) and minimum wage
regimes in Europe and beyond – selected countries –. 6
3.1 Wage disparity in Germany, Norway and Sweden, 2000 to
2015 (decile ratios of gross earnings). 43
4.1 Collective bargaining coverage in Southern Europe, 2007–2016. 70
4.2 Low wage earners as a proportion of all employees, 2006–2014. 72
4.3 In-work at risk of poverty rate, 2009–2017. 76
4.4 Kaitz index, minimum wage relative to the median wage of
full-time workers, 2000–2017. 76
4.5 Monthly minimum wages in PPS, 1999–2019. 77
5.1 Trends in monthly minimum wages, 1999–2019 (nominal,
in euros). 89
5.2 Changes in minimum wage and average gross wage in the
Slovak economy (in EUR and in percentage, 1993–2018). 102
6.1 Collective bargaining coverage in Germany, 1998–2019 in %
of workers employed in companies covered by collective
agreements. 117
6.2 Collective bargaining coverage in Germany according to
wage quintiles, 2014 in % of workers employed in companies
covered by collective agreements. 119
6.3 Share of low wage earners in Germany, 1995–2018 in % of
workers earning below 2/3 of the median wage. 120
6.4 Collectively agreed and extended sectoral minimum wages in
Germany in € per hour, April 2020. 124
6.5 Distribution of wage groups in German collective agreements
in January 2020, in %. 125
6.6 Wage groups in collective agreements below the threshold
of the statutory minimum wage in %. 126
6.7 Development of the lowest wage grade in the collective
agreement for the fast food sector in comparison to the
national minimum wage per hour in €. 127
viii Figures
6.8 Development of the lowest agreed wages for semi-skilled
and unskilled workers in the collective agreement for
hairdressing in North Rhine-Westfalia in comparison
to the national minimum wage per hour in €. 131
7.1 Youth minimum wage ladders 1974, 1983, and 2019
(% of adult minimum wage), and average monthly
amounts for 1/1/2019 (Euros). 139
7.2 Adult minimum wage, average collectively negotiated wages
and actual wages, hourly labour productivity, 1964–2017. 142
7.3 Index of the real minimum wage, the weighted average
of the real negotiated lowest wage rates and the real average
negotiated wage (1983=100). 148
7.4 Percentage change of employment (jobs) by wage group,
age 25–65, 2009–2018 (%). 152
7.5 Evolution of the lowest collectively negotiated adult wage
level as a percentage of the statutory minimum wage. 155
8.1 Trends in collectively agreed wages at sector level, monthly
base wage, SMIC and inflation, 2007–2016. 174
8.2 Union density by industry in 2013, France (%). 181
10.1 Employment in textiles and garment industries as a share
of total manufacturing employment, 2005, 2012 and 2017. 208
10.2 Statutory monthly minimum wages for the garment industry,
US$, 2014. 219
10.3 Estimated wages at subcontracting and direct contracting
garment factories, Bangladesh. 226
10.4 The exploitation of women in Pakistan’s home-based garment
industry 226
11.1 Tripartite commission collective bargaining, 2005–2016. 242
11.2 Structure of agreements at salary councils, 2005–2019. 249
12.1 Country examples of government imposed minimum
wage cuts, freezes and upratings. 264
12.2 Ideal type institutional interactions with static country
illustrations. 266
12.3 Diverse trends in minimum wages in four ‘Isolated type’
countries, 2001–2020. 268
12.4 Comparing examples of close interaction: France and
Portugal –collective bargaining coverage and trends in the
kaitz index. 270
12.5 Comparing examples of close interaction: trends in the
kaitz index (mean wages) in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. 272
12.6 Incidence of low-wage employment by institutional type,
European countries, 2006–2014. 273
Tables
1.1 Different types of minimum wage regimes in Europe and
selected developing countries 4
1.2 Different types of intersections between statutory minimum
wages (MWs) and collectively agreed wages (CAWs) 8
1.3 Minimum wages in percent of median and average wages of
full-time workers 12
2.1 The multiple functions of wages 18
2.2 The combined impact of four policy measures to reduce
the UK wage share gap (difference in wage share in 2011
compared to 1980) 28
3.1 Union density and collective bargaining coverage for blue-collar
workers in manufacturing, construction and hospitality in
Norway (2016 and 2017) and Sweden (2017 and 2018) 41
4.1 Differences and similarities in minimum wage regimes in
Southern Europe in 2020 69
4.2 Low-wage earners as a proportion of all employees
(excluding apprentices) by sex, 2006–2014 73
5.1 Statutory minimum wage coverage and annual growth,
2009–2020 90
5.2 Role of government and tripartite consultation in determining
the statutory minimum wage in 2017 92
5.3 Average collectively agreed nominal wage increases in selected
sectors (in percentage, private sector only, 2014–2018) 104
5.4 Wage growth dynamics in Slovakia: % changes to minimum
wage, average wage and collectively agreed wage 104
6.1 Share of employees with collective agreements, incidence of
low hourly wages and representation at workplace level in
Germany, 2017 in percent 118
7.1 Evolution of minimum-wage legislation and application,
1964–2015 145
7.2 Characteristics of the cleaning, supermarkets and metal sectors 154
7.3 Characteristics of the youth wages in the collective agreements
at the time of the interviews (2016) 155