Youth-adult differences in the demand for unionization: Are American, British, and Canadian workers all that different?

Abstract

This paper examines demand for union membership amongst young workers in Britain, Canada and the United States. The paper benchmarks youth demands for collective representation against those of adult workers and finds that a large a nd significant representation gap exists in all three countries. Using a model of representation advanced by Farber (1982) and Riddell (1993) we find that a majority of the union density differential between young and adult workers is due to supply-side constraints rather than a lower desire for unionisation on the part of the young. This finding lends credence to two conjectures made in the paper; the first is that tastes for collective representation do not differ among workers (either by nationality or by age) and second that union representation can be fruitfully modelled as an experience good. The experience good properties of union membership explain the persistence of union density differentials amongst youth and adults both over time and across countries.

First-Timers and Late-Bloomers: Youth-Adult Unionization Differences in a Cohort of the U.S. Labor Force

“…The probit results reported in column 2 of Table 2 do not include any control variables and show that the average (raw) unionization rate for the two youngest age groups are indeed statistically different from the oldest age group. The union density trend for our single cohort of individuals, then, uncovers a significant youth-adult unionization difference, but compared to the crosssectional results from Bryson et al (2005), in which the unionization rate for workers aged 15-24 is only one-third as high as the unionization rate for those aged 25-65 in the United States, the age-profile in the single NLSY79 cohort flattens out more quickly. Our results are consistent with Blanchflower's (2007) results that also used narrower age categories distinguishing between teenagers and those in their early 20s.…”

“…Bryson et al (2005), for example, motivate their study of youth-adult differences in unionization by showing that unionization rates for workers aged 25-65 are three times higher than for those aged 15-24 in the United States and Canada, and two times higher in Britain. A similar pattern is evident in New Zealand and other countries (Haynes, Vowles, and Boxall 2005).…”

“…The statistics just noted from Bryson et al (2005), for example, compare the unionization rates for youths and adults for 1990, 1995, and 2000. Cross-sectional comparisons, however, cannot separate life-cycle effects from cohort effects (Clark 2007).…”

National Culture and Union Membership

“…Data from india show a similar curvilinear relationship between age and union membership (Gani, 1996). This convex curvilinear relationship may be explained by the risk-reward trade-off inherent in the decision to join a union (Bryson et al, 2005). Unions present possible rewards in terms of increased wages and benefits, which could be offset by employer resistance to the cost of unionization that could take the form of retribution from employers and work disruptions (e.g., strikes) that could put wages in jeopardy (Allen, 1995;Dickens, 1983).…”

Evidence from Micro Data

“…A recent exception is the comparative analysis of youth-adult differences in unionization of American, British and Canadian workers by Bryson et al (2005).…”