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Wage Differentials
There is a wide gulf in pay and earnings rates between different occupations in the UK labour market.
No one factor explains the gulf in pay that exists and persists between occupations and within each
sector of the economy.
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PROF. R.C.’s EASY LEARNING SERIES – I.B. ECONOMICS 93205 21790
Some of the relevant factors are listed below
1. Compensating wage differentials
- higher pay can often be some reward for risk-taking in certain jobs, working in poor conditions
and having to work unsocial hours.
2. Equalising difference and human capital
- in a competitive labour market equilibrium, wage differentials compensate workers for
(opportunity and direct) costs of human capital acquisition.
There is an opportunity cost in acquiring qualifications - measured by the current earnings foregone
by staying in full or part-time education.
3. Different skill levels - the gap between poorly skilled and highly skilled workers gets wider each
year.
One reason is that the market demand for skilled labour grows more quickly than the demand for
semi-skilled workers.
This pushes up pay levels. Highly skilled workers are often in inelastic supply and rising demand
forces up the "going wage rate" in an industry.
4. Differences in labour productivity and revenue creation - workers whose efficiency is highest
and ability to generate revenue for a firm should be rewarded with higher pay.
City economists and analysts are often highly paid not least because they can claim annual bonuses
based on performance.
Top sports stars can command top wages because of their potential to generate extra revenue from
ticket sales and merchandising.
5. Trade unions and their collective bargaining power
- unions might exercise their bargaining power to offset the power of an employer in a particular
occupation and in doing so achieve a mark-up on wages compared to those on offer to non-union
members
6. Employer discrimination is a factor that cannot be ignored despite over twenty years of equal
pay legislation in place
Unions might seek to exercise their collective bargaining power with employers to achieve a mark-
up on wages compared to those on offer to non-union members.
For this to happen, a union must have some control over the total labour supply available to an industry.
In the past this was possible if a union operated a closed shop agreement with an employer – i.e.
where the employer and union agreed that all workers would be a member of a particular union.
However in most sectors, the closed shop is now history.
The soaring cost of child care is worsening the poverty trap according to a new report
commissioned for the save the Children Fund in Scotland. More than one quarter of Scots parents
on low incomes cannot work full time because of the cost of registered childcare which has risen by
more than 10 per cent this year across most of the country.
Joanne Brady, a single mother of two children from Glasgow, is unable to work because she loses
more in means-tested child tax credits than she gains in income. “They take 20 per cent off for each
child when you go to work. You still have to pay your housing, travel and lunches and it's just not
adequate.” Ms Brady, 27, is among the 28 per cent of parents with children under 18 and an
income of less than £15,000.
Source: The Times, July 2008
Suggestions for further reading on labour demand and labour supply
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Each of these articles has been selected because it is relevant to the ideas discussed in this chapter
on the demand for and supply of labour in different labour markets and how this can affect wages
and employment.
Labour Demand
Corus to cut 2,000 steel jobs (BBC news, June 2009)
Labour Supply
Farmers fear strawberry shortage (BBC news, May 2008)
The factors pulling migrant workers home (BBC news, July 2008)
More Eastern Europeans heading home (BBC news, May 2009)
Wages and Wage Differentials
Job satisfaction up in recession (BBC news, May 2009)
Living wage to meet rising costs (BBC news, July 2008)
Migrant worker paid £8.80 a week (BBC news, June 2008)
Government Policies toward Work Incentives
Back to Beveridge (The Times, July 2008)
Claimants to work for benefits (BBC news, July 2008)
Children who cannot escape the poverty trap (Guardian, September 2007)