A Price for Flexibility? The Temp Agency Wage Gap in Sweden 1998-2008

Pernilla Andersson Joona and Eskil Wadensjö

No 6587, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Temporary agency employment has grown rapidly in Sweden as in many other countries. The sector was deregulated in the early 1990s and there are now only few remaining restrictions. Even though there are collective agreements covering a large part of the workers in the sector, the unions are worried about low wages and poor working conditions in the sector. This paper analyzes the development of the temporary agency wage gap during the period 1998-2008 using Swedish register data. We find that from a nearly non-existent gap in 2001 and a positive wage gap for women, both male and female temp agency workers received between 16 and 18 percent lower wages in 2008. This development appears partly to be explained by a lower return to university education among temp agency workers than among those employed in other sectors.

Keywords: temporary agency employment; wages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 J42 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2012-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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