Do Migrants Lower Workplace Wages?

Michael White () and Alex Bryson
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Michael White: Policy Studies Institute

No 10549, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Using nationally representative workplace data for Britain we identify the partial correlation between workplace wages and the percentage of migrants employed at a workplace. We find wages are lower in workplaces employing a higher percentage of migrants, but only when those migrants are non-EEA migrants. However, the effects are no longer apparent when we condition on the ethnic complexion of employees at the workplace. Instead, the wage penalty is attached to the percentage of non-white employees, a finding that is consistent with employer discrimination on grounds of race, or lower worker bargaining power when employees are ethnically diverse.

Keywords: earnings; low pay; race; wages; ethnicity; migration; migrants; discrimination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 J61 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2017-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
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Published - published in: Work, Employment and Society, 2019, 33 (5), 759-776

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Working Paper: Do Migrants Lower Workplace Wages? (2017)
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