The Wage Impact of Trade Unions in the UK Public and Private Sectors

There is a growing gap in the union membership wage premium between public and private-sector workers in the United Kingdom. Using the Labour Force Surveys of 1993-2006, the gap between the membership premium in the public and private sectors closes with the addition of three-digit occupational controls, although significant wage premia remain in both sectors. However, using the Workplace Employment Relations Survey of 2004, the public-sector union membership wage premium remains roughly twice the size of the private-sector membership premium, having accounted for workplace fixed effects and workers' occupations, job characteristics, qualifications and demographics. Copyright (c) The London School of Economics and Political Science 2008.