Collective bargaining coverage, works councils and the new German minimum wage

Lutz Bellmann, Mario Bossler, Hans-Dieter Gerner and Olaf Hübler
Additional contact information
Lutz Bellmann: Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Germany; Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
Hans-Dieter Gerner: Nuremberg Institute of Technology Georg Simon Ohm, Germany; Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Germany
Olaf Hübler: Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Olaf Hübler

Economic and Industrial Democracy, 2021, vol. 42, issue 2, 269-288

Abstract: This article assesses the role of the recent introduction of the minimum wage for collective bargaining coverage and works councils in Germany. The new minimum wage was initiated to strengthen German tariff autonomy, but effects on collective bargaining coverage are theoretically ambivalent. Using the IAB Establishment Panel, descriptive regressions show that firms covered by a collective bargaining contract are much less likely affected by the minimum wage. To construct a counterfactual for the group of affected establishments, the authors apply an entropy balancing procedure. Subsequent difference-in-differences estimates reveal a slight decline in collective bargaining participation, which falls short of statistical significance. Although the effect on opting into collective bargaining is even slightly positive, the authors observe a significant decrease in coverage through firms that exit collective agreements.

Keywords: Collective bargaining; industrial relations; works councils (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X18762304 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:42:y:2021:i:2:p:269-288

DOI: 10.1177/0143831X18762304

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Economic and Industrial Democracy from Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().