Abstract
The “new structuralism” in sociology has shown that characteristics of firms and industries affect the wages of those who work in them, even after adjusting for differences in employees’ human capital. Similar findings appear in the economic literature. This chapter draws from both economics and sociology to propose a conceptual framework with which to explain these structural effects. Our orienting assumption is that, net of human capital, workplace wage levels are determined by (a) employees’ bargaining power and (b) the size of the after-cost (economic) profit available for distribution as wages. We wish to understand how structural characteristics of firms and industries affect these variables, and to use this understanding to explain recent empirical findings by structuralist sociologists.
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Farkas, G., England, P., Barton, M. (1988). Structural Effects on Wages. In: Farkas, G., England, P. (eds) Industries, Firms, and Jobs. Springer Studies in Work and Industry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3536-6_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3536-6_5
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