Does institutional diversity account for pay rules in Germany and Belgium?

This article examines the relationship between institutions and the remuneration of different jobs by comparing the German and Belgian labour markets with respect to a typology of institutions (social representations, norms, conventions, legislation and organizations). The observed institutional differences between the two countries lead to the hypotheses of (I) higher overall pay inequality in Germany; (II) higher pay inequalities between employees and workers in Belgium and (III) higher (lower) impact of educational credentials (work-post tenure) on earnings in Germany. We provide survey-based empirical evidence supporting hypotheses I and III, but find no evidence for hypothesis II. These results underline the importance of institutional details: although Germany and Belgium belong to the same 'variety of capitalism', we provide evidence that small institutional disparities within Continental-European capitalism account for distinct structures of pay. © The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press and the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. All rights reserved.