Union - nonunion wage differentials in the developing world : a case study of Mexico

Union-nonunion wage differentials have been extensively studied by labor economists, but for lack of data on the developing world the study has been confined largely to the industrial world. This paper is one of the first attempts to empirically examine those differentials in a developing country. The authors find that union-nonunion wage differentials in Mexico have many of the same patterns as those in industrial nations. But there are marked differences. Based on a household survey in 1989, the authors find that: (i) overall, the union-nonunion wage gap is 10.4 percent; (ii) unions have a positive impact on the earnings of employed women and indigenous people; and (iii) organized labor in Mexico's northern states is considerably weaker in collective bargaining strength than it is elsewhere in Mexico.