The traditional dichotomy of paid versus unpaid work has a tendency to marginalise unpaid work when we attempt to conceptualise precariousness, leading to our perception that it involves exposure to the unpredictability of an individual's future. A new theoretical and empirical perspective is...

This paper addresses two related issues: the effect of the `regulatory shock' of the National Minimum Wage on small firms and the consequent effects on the commonly observed practice of `informality'. It draws on a survey of such firms but primarily uses case study evidence from five firms to...

Purpose A “living” wage (LW) is conventionally defined as enabling meaningful participation in society above subsistence through, for example, recreation, supporting a family, and savings. There is increasing debate over LWs due to growing inequality, rising living costs and welfare reform...

The growth of variable pay schemes (VPS) appears to threaten collective approaches to pay determination, which are based on standardization and centralization. This article utilizes case study research to analyse the still little-known relationship between collective bargaining and VPS. It...

Pay determination in small firms is widely expected to follow the dictates of the market. Research on 81 firms in three competitive sectors finds, instead, loosely defined and variable pay structures. This variability is explained in terms of the interplay between labour and product markets,...

The introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) had potentially significant implications for small firms. Orthodox economic theory predicts adverse consequences, though institutional analysis points to potential efficiency as well as fairness effects. Using longitudinal data on 55 firms,...

Rather than legal enactment and collective bargaining being the main engines of the 'Europeanisation' of industrial relations, benchmarking and 'soft' forms of regulation are increasingly to the fore. This article traces the origins of benchmarking from management tool to regulatory instrument,...

Commercial firms in industries once under public ownership generally have well-organised trade unions with significant disruptive capacity, yet overt confict is often low despite major change. This paper examines the experience of two major rail and energy companies after privatisation. The...