Wage Floors Set in Collective Bargaining: Evidence on Wages and Employment in Argentina

Autores
Ramírez Leira, Lucía; Lombardo, Carlo Ignazio; Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos
Año de publicación
2025
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
documento de trabajo
Estado
versión enviada
Descripción
In Argentina, the national minimum wage (NMW) coexists with sectoral wage floors (WF) established through collective bargaining agreements (CBA). These WFs exceed the NMW for most registered workers, rendering the minimum wage largely ineffective. Using novel data on union-negotiated wages combined with administrative records, this paper analyzes the impact of WFs set in CBAs on employment, wages, and wage inequality among formal workers. The analysis is conducted at both the industry and individual levels, utilizing a fixed-effects model by year and sector and a linear probability model based on individual worker trajectories. Results indicate that CBAs reduce overall wage inequality by decreasing inequality at the upper end of the distribution without affecting the lower end. No significant employment effects are found, except for a negative impact in sectors with a higher proportion of small firms (MSMEs). However, at the worker level, CBAs reduce the probability of remaining employed for workers near the wage floors, with more negative effects observed in MSMEs. Finally, CBAs’ positive effect on wage increases and negative effects on employment are more pronounced in unfavorable macroeconomic conditions.
Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales
Materia
Ciencias Económicas
Inequality
Employment
Collective Bargaining
Unions
Minimum Wage
Argentina
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Repositorio
SEDICI (UNLP)
Institución
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
OAI Identificador
oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/182278
Acceder
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oai_identifier_str oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/182278
network_acronym_str SEDICI
repository_id_str 1329
network_name_str SEDICI (UNLP)
spelling Wage Floors Set in Collective Bargaining: Evidence on Wages and Employment in ArgentinaRamírez Leira, LucíaLombardo, Carlo IgnazioGasparini, Leonardo CarlosCiencias EconómicasInequalityEmploymentCollective BargainingUnionsMinimum WageArgentinaIn Argentina, the national minimum wage (NMW) coexists with sectoral wage floors (WF) established through collective bargaining agreements (CBA). These WFs exceed the NMW for most registered workers, rendering the minimum wage largely ineffective. Using novel data on union-negotiated wages combined with administrative records, this paper analyzes the impact of WFs set in CBAs on employment, wages, and wage inequality among formal workers. The analysis is conducted at both the industry and individual levels, utilizing a fixed-effects model by year and sector and a linear probability model based on individual worker trajectories. Results indicate that CBAs reduce overall wage inequality by decreasing inequality at the upper end of the distribution without affecting the lower end. No significant employment effects are found, except for a negative impact in sectors with a higher proportion of small firms (MSMEs). However, at the worker level, CBAs reduce the probability of remaining employed for workers near the wage floors, with more negative effects observed in MSMEs. Finally, CBAs’ positive effect on wage increases and negative effects on employment are more pronounced in unfavorable macroeconomic conditions.Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales2025-08info:eu-repo/semantics/workingPaperinfo:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersionDocumento de trabajohttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042info:ar-repo/semantics/documentoDeTrabajoapplication/pdfhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/182278enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://www.cedlas.econo.unlp.edu.ar/wp/wp-content/uploads/doc_cedlas353.pdf?dl=0info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1853-0168info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Platainstacron:UNLP2025-10-22T17:30:36Zoai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/182278Institucionalhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicaNo correspondehttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/oai/snrdalira@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13292025-10-22 17:30:37.224SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Platafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Wage Floors Set in Collective Bargaining: Evidence on Wages and Employment in Argentina
title Wage Floors Set in Collective Bargaining: Evidence on Wages and Employment in Argentina
spellingShingle Wage Floors Set in Collective Bargaining: Evidence on Wages and Employment in Argentina
Ramírez Leira, Lucía
Ciencias Económicas
Inequality
Employment
Collective Bargaining
Unions
Minimum Wage
Argentina
title_short Wage Floors Set in Collective Bargaining: Evidence on Wages and Employment in Argentina
title_full Wage Floors Set in Collective Bargaining: Evidence on Wages and Employment in Argentina
title_fullStr Wage Floors Set in Collective Bargaining: Evidence on Wages and Employment in Argentina
title_full_unstemmed Wage Floors Set in Collective Bargaining: Evidence on Wages and Employment in Argentina
title_sort Wage Floors Set in Collective Bargaining: Evidence on Wages and Employment in Argentina
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Ramírez Leira, Lucía
Lombardo, Carlo Ignazio
Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos
author Ramírez Leira, Lucía
author_facet Ramírez Leira, Lucía
Lombardo, Carlo Ignazio
Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos
author_role author
author2 Lombardo, Carlo Ignazio
Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos
author2_role author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Ciencias Económicas
Inequality
Employment
Collective Bargaining
Unions
Minimum Wage
Argentina
topic Ciencias Económicas
Inequality
Employment
Collective Bargaining
Unions
Minimum Wage
Argentina
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv In Argentina, the national minimum wage (NMW) coexists with sectoral wage floors (WF) established through collective bargaining agreements (CBA). These WFs exceed the NMW for most registered workers, rendering the minimum wage largely ineffective. Using novel data on union-negotiated wages combined with administrative records, this paper analyzes the impact of WFs set in CBAs on employment, wages, and wage inequality among formal workers. The analysis is conducted at both the industry and individual levels, utilizing a fixed-effects model by year and sector and a linear probability model based on individual worker trajectories. Results indicate that CBAs reduce overall wage inequality by decreasing inequality at the upper end of the distribution without affecting the lower end. No significant employment effects are found, except for a negative impact in sectors with a higher proportion of small firms (MSMEs). However, at the worker level, CBAs reduce the probability of remaining employed for workers near the wage floors, with more negative effects observed in MSMEs. Finally, CBAs’ positive effect on wage increases and negative effects on employment are more pronounced in unfavorable macroeconomic conditions.
Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales
description In Argentina, the national minimum wage (NMW) coexists with sectoral wage floors (WF) established through collective bargaining agreements (CBA). These WFs exceed the NMW for most registered workers, rendering the minimum wage largely ineffective. Using novel data on union-negotiated wages combined with administrative records, this paper analyzes the impact of WFs set in CBAs on employment, wages, and wage inequality among formal workers. The analysis is conducted at both the industry and individual levels, utilizing a fixed-effects model by year and sector and a linear probability model based on individual worker trajectories. Results indicate that CBAs reduce overall wage inequality by decreasing inequality at the upper end of the distribution without affecting the lower end. No significant employment effects are found, except for a negative impact in sectors with a higher proportion of small firms (MSMEs). However, at the worker level, CBAs reduce the probability of remaining employed for workers near the wage floors, with more negative effects observed in MSMEs. Finally, CBAs’ positive effect on wage increases and negative effects on employment are more pronounced in unfavorable macroeconomic conditions.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025-08
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/workingPaper
info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersion
Documento de trabajo
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042
info:ar-repo/semantics/documentoDeTrabajo
format workingPaper
status_str submittedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/182278
url http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/182278
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
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info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1853-0168
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)
instname:Universidad Nacional de La Plata
instacron:UNLP
reponame_str SEDICI (UNLP)
collection SEDICI (UNLP)
instname_str Universidad Nacional de La Plata
instacron_str UNLP
institution UNLP
repository.name.fl_str_mv SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Plata
repository.mail.fl_str_mv alira@sedici.unlp.edu.ar
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