The Pay Equity Effects of Minimum Wages: A Comparative Industrial Relations Approach

From wage regulation to wage gap: how wage-setting institutions and structures shape the gender wage gap across three industries in 24 European countries and Germany

“…Findings suggest that the empirical evidence is mixed: whilst some studies found no or negative effects of different minimum wage levels (Blau and Kahn, 2003;Salverda and Mayhew, 2009), others indicate that the protective function of a minimum wage for women in low-wage employment plays out as an improvement of women's total earnings and helps narrow the gender earning gap (for Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Spain and the UK see Grimshaw et al, 2014A; for the UK Dex et al, 2000). Furthermore, different pay equity outcomes of interaction between minimum wage and collective bargaining features have to be taken into account (Grimshaw et al, 2014B). All in all, findings indicate that labour market structures and regulations, such as collective bargaining institutions and minimum wage regulations, tend to provide enabling conditions for gender pay equity although they vary in level and value between sectors and industries (on private/public see Arulampalam et al, 2007).…”

“…Indeed, the gender earning gap 2 is not only a common and persisting feature of advanced market economies, but over the past decades it also varies increasingly across countries due to the enlargement of the European Union and German unification. Additionally, attention must be paid to the question of how the increase of wage dispersion, induced by an expansion of lowwage work and a weakening of unions and corporatism in some countries, affects the gender pay gap (Grimshaw et al, 2014B). Against this background, controversial current debates on a dualisation of labour markets and endangered middle classes indicate that an intersectional perspective on gender differences in the labour market is needed.…”

The minimum wage in Ecuador

“…There is evidence of a positive impact of variations of MW on poverty reduction in Nicaragua (Alaniz, Gindling & Terrell, 2011), Argentina (Grimshaw & Miozzo, 2003) and Perú (Jaramillo, 2004), and a negative influence in Brazil (Neumark, Cunningham & Siga, 2006) and Honduras (Gindling & Terrell, 2009). In Brazil, Paes De Barros, Henriques & Mendonça (2001) and Colombia (Arango & Pachón, 2004) did not find any evidence of a relationship between MW variations and poverty reduction.…”

Do Mediterraneans really do it better? Explaining the lower gender wage gap in southern European countries

“…In this context, there are many factors that can help explain the differences between the wages received by women and men in European countries, and they are not necessarily mutually exclusive; they include the low level of participation of women in the job market, lower levels of inequality thanks to specific systems of collective bargaining or generous minimum wage levels (Grimshaw, Bosch, & Rubery, ) and the relative weight of public‐sector employment, given that a majority of public‐sector workers are female. Many of these explanations are centred on differences between countries on the job supply side (participation of women in the labour force) and on the way in which national labour market institutions influence this.…”