The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented economic and policy challenges to the United States and other countries. Navigating out of the pandemic slowdown is another novel experience, which makes it more difficult to answer the question addressed each year in the "State of Working Pennsylvania": How is the Pennsylvania economy…

From 1973 to 2007, private sector union membership in the United States declined from 34 to 8 percent for men and from 16 to 6 percent for women. During this period, inequality in hourly wages increased by over 40 percent. We report a decomposition, relating rising inequality to the union wage distribution's shrinking weight. We argue that unions…

Analysis of Current Population Survey data for 1973-86 found that, although the aggregate union wage premium has changed little since 1973, some industry-specific premiums have risen substantially. Industries with rising premiums are those experiencing declines in union employment shares. (Author/SK)

A substantial portion of workers had their wages frozen or reduced; and specified increases were the smallest since the bargaining series began in 1968, reflecting both management's desire to hold down labor costs and workers' concern over job security. Charts and tables illustrating the wage adjustments are included. (Author/CT)

British panel data from 1991-1996 on 950 men indicated that the 60% who were union covered were more likely to receive training and more days of training than those not covered by unions. Among trained workers, union-covered ones received higher returns and greater wage growth. (Contains 48 references.) (SK)

Using previously unreleased data on nearly every authorized work stoppage that occurred between 1984 and 2002, this paper tests whether the positive wage-strike relationship held following the breakdown of the post-war labor-capital accord. Unlike in decades past, these findings indicate a complete decoupling of the wage-strike relationship. Even…

The significant historical developments of the cost of living wage adjustments are summarized. Since the concept of cost of living took effect in 1919, developments that are noted are: World War II, the GM contract 1948, the GM Contract 1950, and the impact of the agreements. (DS)

Empirical analysis of 26 Canadian strikes finds strikes profitable, Industries

A study used data for the 1987 calendar year from the 1986 and 1987 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to examine the impact of union membership on women's wages and job tenure. The data set included 17,200 sample members, representing about 79 million workers, aged 16-64. The study mapped the distribution of union…

Data on women in labor unions in 1988 reveal the following facts: (1) women are becoming an increasingly important part of membership in organized labor, as the total number of workers in unions declines; (2) in 1988, nearly 6 million of the 47.5 million employed women in the United States, or about 13 percent, were members of unions; (3) since…

This study examines the year-to-year movement in the wage differential between skilled and unskilled workers, 1907-72, using union contract rates in the construction industry. The author examines a number of hypotheses that have been suggested as explanation for changes in the skill differential. (Editor/HD)

Previous findings indicate that faculty on the average earn greater compensation increases at unionized institutions than at nonunionized colleges and universities. More recent data suggest that while increases favoring unionized faculty continue in public four-year colleges and independent institutions, they may have stabilized at public…

A study used data from the 1998 Current Population Survey to document job growth in the public and private sectors and examine the quality of jobs in terms of wages and benefits. Findings indicated public sector employment declined for both women and men during the period from 1979-98 with a somewhat sharper decline among men. In 1998, median…