Public sector unionism grew rapidly during the late 1960s and early 1970s following the passage of state collective bargaining laws. During the last thirty years, public sector membership has grown at roughly the same rate as the overall workforce. This paper provides a descriptive overview of...

Elliott R. F., Bell D., Scott A., Ma A. and Roberts E. (2005) Devolved government and public sector pay reform: considerations of equity and efficiency, Regional Studies 39 , 519-539. Public sector pay is of critical concern to the governments in Westminster and Edinburgh. It accounts for the...

Baumol’s cost disease states that relatively high productivity growth in manufacturing induces a steady increase in the relative price of human services. If demand for these services is inelastic or manufactured goods are necessities, the budget share of these services inexorably rises over...

This paper reviews an investigation into the application of retention bonuses and labor market allowances in the central government sector in the Netherlands. On average, the supplements amount to approximately one (gross) monthly salary. They mainly accrue to males, who are highly educated,...

This paper uses microeconomic data for the period from 1990 to 2004 to examine the relationship between public–private sector wage differentials and labour market conditions in Finland. The results show that the public sector wage premium is strongly counter-cyclical. On average, a 10 percent...

An important aspect of the impact of the economic crisis is how pay in the public sector responds – in the face not only of the evolution of pay in the private sector, but also extreme pressure on public spending (of which pay is a very large proportion) as fiscal deficits soar. What are the...