Internal Labour Markets: Evidence From Two Large Australian Employers

Abstract

This paper examines internal labour markets in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century using personnel records from the Union Bank of Australia and the Victorian Railways. Both employers hired young workers and offered them the possibility of very-long-term employment. Salaries were determined by impersonal rules, such as being attached to tenure and to position. Workers rarely received nominal pay cuts. This approach to human resources was designed to retain and motivate workers. We show that all of the classic features of internal labour markets used to describe American firms in the 1970s were present dating back to the Victorian period.JEL categories: N37, J41, N87

‘Australian sailors wanted’: Labour supply and Australian shipping, c. 1870–c. 1914

“…276-278;Year Book Australia, 1908-1915, pp. 1130-1138 rare nominal pay cuts and salaries attached to tenure and to position (Seltzer & Sammartino, 2009). Given this difference in wages and employment conditions with, as Robert Craig, a former ship captain, put to the 1906 Royal Commission on Ocean Service, 'so many other ways of getting a livelihood', most working-class Australian males did not consider a possible career at sea (1906, p. 95).…”

“…The latter could earn the same or slightly more than his seagoing colleagues despite performing much the same tasks. Moreover, railway management offered young workers the possibility of very‐long‐term employment with very rare nominal pay cuts and salaries attached to tenure and to position (Seltzer & Sammartino, 2009). Given this difference in wages and employment conditions with, as Robert Craig, a former ship captain, put to the 1906 Royal Commission on Ocean Service, ‘so many other ways of getting a livelihood’, most working‐class Australian males did not consider a possible career at sea (1906, p. 95).…”