Minimum Wage Regimes

This book goes beyond traditional minimum wage research to investigate the interplay between different country and sectoral institutional settings and actors' strategies in the field of minimum wage policies. It asks which strategies and motives, namely free collective bargaining, fair pay and/or minimum income protection, are emphasised by social actors with respect to the regulation and adaptation of (statutory) minimum wages. Taking an actor-centered institutionalist approach, and employing cross-country comparative studies, sector studies and single country accounts of change, the book relates institutional and labour market settings, actors' strategies and power resources with policy and practice outcomes. Looking at the key pay equity indicators of low wage development and women's over-representation among the low paid, it illuminates our understandings about the importance of historical junctures, specific constellations of social actors, and sector- and country-specific actor strategies. Finally, it underlines the important role of social dialogue in shaping an effective minimum wage policy. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and policy-makers and practitioners in industrial relations, international human resource management, labour studies, labour market policy, inequality studies, trade union studies, European politics and political economy.

Irene Dingeldey is Director of the Institute Labour and Economy at the University of Bremen, Germany. Damian Grimshaw is Professor of Employment Studies at King's College London, UK, and Associate Dean for Research Impact. Thorsten Schulten is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI) at the Hans Böckler Foundation, and Head of the WSI Collective Agreement Archive. He is also an honorary professor at the University of Tübingen, Germany.

1. Introduction: Minimum wage regimes in Europe and selected developing countries 2. Minimum wages and the multiple functions of wages Part I: Actors' strategies influencing collective bargaining and minimum wage regulations at national level in European countries 3. Securing wage floors in the absence of a statutory minimum wage: Minimum wage regulations in Scandinavia facing low wage competition 4. Minimum wages in Southern Europe: Regulation and reconfiguration under the shadow of hierarchy 5. Shaping minimum wages in Central and Eastern Europe: Giving up collective bargaining in favour of legal regulation? Part II: The combined effects of minimum wages and collective bargaining in different sectors 6. The interplay of minimum wages and collective bargaining in Germany: How and why does it vary across sectors? 7. Downward convergence between negotiated wages and the minimum wage: The case of the Netherlands 8. The SMIC as a driver for collective bargaining: The interplay of collective bargaining and minimum wage in France Part III: The minimum wage beyond Europe - an accomplishment or an alternative to collective bargaining? 9. Minimum wages in Indonesia: Informality, politics and weak trade unions in a large middle-income country 10. Are minimum wages for textile and garment industry workers effective? A sector-in-country institutionalist approach for five developing countries 11. Minimum wages and inequality mitigation in post-dictatorship industrial relations systems in Latin America: The case of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay Part IV: Conclusion: Lessons to be learned? 12. Conclusion: Understanding the multiple interactions between institutions of minimum wages and industrial relations