This paper challenges the common belief that pattern bargaining largely ended in the 1980s. Applying a measure of pattern bargaining—the dispersion of log wages—to wage data drawn from the same data set that Audrey Freedman used in her widely quoted studies of this subject, the author shows that the extent of pattern bargaining was actually greater in 1983 than in 1977. The evidence suggests that managers' perceptions of changes in the bargaining process, which are the basis for Freedman's claim that pattern bargaining has eroded, are inconsistent with actual changes in wage patterns.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AllenRobert E., and KeavenyTimothy J.. 1983. Contemporary Labor Relations. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley.
2.
BarskyCarl B., and PersonickMartin E.. 1981. “Measuring Wage Dispersion: Pay Ranges Reflect Industry Traits.”Monthly Labor Review, Vol. 104, No. 4, pp. 35–41.
3.
ChamberlainNeil, and KuhnJames. 1986. Collective Bargaining, 3rd ed.New York: McGraw-Hill.
4.
DunlopJohn. 1982. “Working Toward Consensus.”Challenge, Vol. 25 (July—August), pp. 26–34.
5.
CappelliPeter. 1982. “Concession Bargaining and the National Economy.” Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting. Madison, Wis.: Industrial Relations Research Association, pp. 362–71.
6.
FossumJohn A.1985. Labor Relations. Piano, Tex.: Business Publications.
7.
FreedmanAudrey. 1982. “A Fundamental Change in Wage Bargaining.”Challenge, Vol. 25 (July—August), pp. 14–17.
8.
FreedmanAudrey. 1981. Labor Outlook 1982. New York: The Conference Board, Research Bulletin 108.
9.
FreedmanAudrey. 1979. Managing Labor Relations. New York: The Conference Board, Report No. 765.
10.
FreedmanAudrey. 1985. The New Look in Wage Policy and Employee Relations. New York: The Conference Board, Research Report.
11.
FreemanRichard B.1982. “Union Wage Practices and Wage Dispersion Within Establishments.”Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 3–21.
12.
FreemanRichard B.1980. “Unionism and the Dispersion of Wages.”Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 3–23.
13.
GayRobert S.1984. “Union Settlements and Aggregate Wage Behavior in the 1980s.”Federal Reserve Bulletin, Vol. 70, No. 12, pp. 843–56.
14.
HermanE. Edward, and KuhnAlfred. 1981. Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
15.
HolleyWilliam H., and JenningsKenneth M.. 1988. The Labor Relations Process. Chicago, Ill.: Dryden Press.
16.
JohnsonNorman L., and KotzSamuel. 1970. Distributions in Statistics: Continuous Univariate Distribution, Vol. 2. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
17.
KassalowEverett M.1982, “Concession Bargaining—Something Old, but Also Something Quite New.”Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting.Madison, Wis.: Industrial Relations Research Association, pp. 372–82.
18.
KochanThomas. 1980. Collective Bargaining and Industrial Relations. Homewood, Ill.: Richard D. Irwin.
19.
KochanThomas A.KatzHarry C., and McKersieRobert B.. 1986. The Transformation of American Industrial Relations. New York: Basic Books.
20.
MitchellDaniel J. B.1982. “Recent Union Contract Concessions.”Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Vol. 1, pp. 165–204. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.
21.
MitchellDaniel J. B.1983. “The 1982 Union Wage Concessions: A Turning Point for Collective Bargaining?”California Management Review, Vol. 25 (Summer), pp. 78–92.
22.
RederMelvin. 1952. “The Theory of Union Wage Policy.”Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 34 (February), pp. 34–45.
23.
ReesAlbert, and HamiltonMary T.. 1963. “Postwar Movements of Wage Levels and Unit Costs.”The Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 6 (October), pp. 50–56. Also in Burton, eds., Readings in Labor Market Analysis. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc., 1971, pp. 484–88.
24.
RubenGeorge. 1988. “Developments in Industrial Relations.”Monthly Labor Review, Vol. 111 (July), pp. 38–39.
25.
WeberArnold R.1961. The Structure of Collective Bargaining. New York: Crowell Collier.
