Is Declining Union Membership Contributing to Low Wages Growth? Discussion

As union membership is declining, it is natural to ask whether this decline results in slower wage growth. The paper by James Bishop and Iris Chan (2019) studies this question in the context of the recent slowdown in wage growth in Australia and argues the answer is a clear “No”. It is a pleasure to discuss this paper, which not only adds to the discussion about the recent slowing in wage growth in Australia but makes some interesting contributions to the academic literature on unions as well.