David Metcalf, chair of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), outlines recent changes in the regulatory framework for immigrant workers.

Sue Fernie and David Metcalf survey the economic evidence concerning the impact on pay, jobs and poverty of a minimum wage set at different levels. Minimum wages are probably the most controversial political and economic labour market issue at present.

The national minimum wage is now an established part of the British labour market. In the first evaluation of all the evidence of its impact on pay and jobs, David Metcalf shows that there has been a big boost in the pay of those towards the bottom of the pay league table with no associated loss...

China apparently has more trade union members than the rest of the world put together. But as David Metcalf and Jianwei Li have found, Chinese unions function very differently from unions in the West.

Simple reforms to the 'investor route' system whereby wealthy foreigners can get permanent residence in the UK would benefit current residents and signal that the country is open. That's the view of Sir David Metcalf, chair of the government's Migration Advisory Committee and an active CEP...

Since the abolition of the Wages Councils in September 1993, agriculture is the only sector in the UK economy covered by any form of minimum wage legislation. This paper investigates the impact of the system of minimum wages on the level and structure of earnings in agriculture and the level and...

If the presence of a union in a workplace or firm raises the pay level, unless productivity rises correspondingly, financial performance is likely to be worse. If the product market is uncompetitive this might imply a simple transfer from capital to labour with no efficiency effects, but is...

A century has passed since the first call for a British national minimum wage (NMW). That remarkable Fabian tract discussed wage setting, coverage, monopsony, international labour standards, inspection and compliance and the interaction between the NMW and the social security system. The NMW was...

China has, apparently, more trade union members than the rest of the world put together. But the unions do not function in the same way as western trade unions. In particular Chinese unions are subservient to the Partystate. The theme of the paper is the gap between rhetoric and reality. Issues...

Establishment level data from the 1990 British Workplace Industrial Relations Survey are used to analyse links between employee involvement, contingent pay, collective representation and six different indicators of workplace performance: productivity levels and growth, employment changes, the...