Advantages and Disadvantages of the New Edition of Chapter 49.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation

The paper analyzes the novels of Ch. 49.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation introduced on January 1, 2021. It highlights advantages and disadvantages of new approaches of the legislator to the regulation of remote work, describes preliminary results regarding the application of new rules. The merits of the new edition of Ch. 49.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation include the emergence of the opportunity to combine work “in the office” with a remote work in accordance with the employment contract, the cancellation of Article 312.5 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation that contains the right to establish additional grounds for terminating an employment contract with a remote worker, and the simplification of the procedure for signing an employment contract and other documents required for registration of employment of a remote worker. As shortcomings, the author enumerates the absence in the new edition of Ch. 49.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation of norms concerning the peculiarities of implementation by teleworkers of the right to join trade unions to protect their rights, the peculiarities of investigating an industrial accident or occupational disease of a teleworker, the absence of norms on the “right to be offline” beyond working hours for a teleworker, imperfection of the legal technique associated with the introduction into the legal field of two new grounds for terminating an employment contract with a remote worker. The author predicts possible violations of the newly introduced provision on the wages preservation in full when the employee performs his labor function remotely, which is linked to the incentive payments in the wage structure, awarding which is considered as a right, rather than an obligation of the employer. Among the disadvantages the paper names the lack of conflict-of-laws rules in the case of remote work carried out by both foreign workers and citizens of the Russian Federation outside its borders. In general, the author gives positive assessment of amendments introduced in Ch. 49.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, as expanding the possibilities of the parties to the employment contract for a more active application of the rules on distance work. The shortcomings noted in the paper should be regarded as material for theoretical comprehension and discussion with the aim of further improvement of the legal regulation of remote workers’ labor.

Wages of Skilled Migrant and Native Employees in Germany: New Light on an Old Issue

The German Council of Economic Experts (GCEE) argues for a labor market-driven immigration of skilled migrants into Germany to overcome a decline in workforce due to demographic ageing. We pick up this current debate on skilled immigration by analyzing the migrant-native wage differential for skilled workers in Germany and consider various information on firms. Our results indicate that the wage gap is mainly explained by observable characteristics, especially labor market experience and firm characteristics. However, we find lower rewards for migrants’ labor market experience than for natives (flatter experience curves). Our results show that these differences in experience curves become negligible in the long run. Moreover, we reveal firms’ wage-setting policies: Firms evaluate a worker's education independent of migration backgrounds, as migrants possess the same productivity levels as their German counterparts in the same occupations and task levels. Due to Germany's heterogeneous immigration structure, we are able to compare the results for different migrant subgroups and, thus, derive valuable insights into the migrant-native wage structure with a wide reach beyond Germany. This article adds to current debates in various industrialized countries with demographic ageing patterns, as it focuses on an important group for domestic labor markets: skilled immigrants.

The impact of training on productivity and wages in Tunisia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of training on labor productivity and wages in order to examine how the benefits from training are shared between employers and employees.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzes an industry panel covering all sectors of the Tunisian economy for the period 2000–2014. The panel structure of the data allows controlling for the endogeneity of training by using different panel data techniques.FindingsResults show that both employers and workers benefit from training since it has a positive and significant effect on productivity and wages. However, the effect of training on productivity is substantially higher than on wages, suggesting that employers obtain the largest part of the returns to training. This result is consistent with theories that explain firm-sponsored training by a compressed wage structure in imperfect labor markets.Originality/valueThis study, particularly showcasing the labor market in Tunisia, is one of the first to provide estimates for a developing country to assess the effects of training for both employer and employee. It is also among the few empirical works that analyzed the impact of training on labor productivity and wages simultaneously.

Job evaluation as a mechanism for achieving the fairness of a wage structure in the administrative system: theoretical perspectives

PurposeThis paper aims to present a theoretical framework which reveals the relationship between job evaluation (JE) and the development of fair wage structure from the organizational justice (OJ) perspective. It focuses on analyzing the dimensions of job-based pay structure and the use of multifaceted construct of OJ (procedures, distribution and interaction) to determine how the perceived justice of JE's multi-levels construct contributes to achieve the fairness of wage structure.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts an analytical descriptive approach in terms of explaining the perspectives and viewpoints related to the analysis. This paper is based on examining a theoretical framework provided by the authors based on a theoretical review of literature and a set of empirical evidences.FindingsThe design of a hierarchical wage structure counts on the multidimensional approach of JE which consists of three dimensions (processes, outcomes and social system). In addition, the determination of wage structure fairness is dependent on the assessment of the perceived justice of: JE's procedures, wages distribution and management's treatment with its employees.Originality/valueThis study provides a new theoretical contribution in studying the relationship between JE and the design of fair wage structure. This contribution can be regarded as a theoretical foundation for conducting some empirical and comparative studies in the future. The study affords directive mechanisms to policymakers in order to enhance the fairness of the wage structure across the state.

Challenging the working time reduction and wages trade-off: a simulation for the Spanish economy

This paper analyzes the effect of working time reduction (WTR) on the Spanish economy. Using microdata from the Economically Active Population Survey (EAPS) and the Wage Structure Survey (WSS), we estimate the changes in employment, worked hours, wages and salaries, and the labour share driven by a 5-hour reduction of the ordinary work week in full-time contracts (from 40 hours to 35 hours), without a wage reduction. According to our results, this WTR would mean the liberation of private sector hours that are equivalent to 1.2 million full-time jobs. To calculate job creation, we consider the occupations and technical conditions of production (based on the European Working Conditions Survey). Consequently, had the WTR taken place in 2017, it would have created 560 thousand jobs, thus causing the unemployment rate to fall by 2.6 p.p. Moreover, women are found to be the group most affected by this measure. As for the effect on wages, these would have increased by 3.7%, implying a labour share increase of 2.1 p.p. Finally, we study the macroeconomic effects, through an extended version of the single-equations Bhaduri–Marglin model using quarterly data from 1995Q1 until 2017Q4. Our results show that a WTR of 5 hours leads to an increase of 1.4% in GDP.

The impact of deunionization on the growth and dispersion of productivity and pay

This article presents an Agent-Based Model (ABM) that seeks to explain the concordance of sluggish growth of productivity and of real wages found in macroeconomic statistics, and the increased dispersion of firm productivity and worker earnings found in micro level statistics in advanced economies at the turn of the 21st century. It shows that a single market process unleashed by the decline of unionization can account for both the macro- and micro-economic phenomena, and that deunionization can be modeled as an endogenous outcome of competition between high wage firms seeking to raise productive capacity and low productivity firms seeking to cut wages. The model highlights the antipodal competitive dynamics between a “winner-takes-all economy” in which corporate strategies focused on cost reductions lead to divergence in productivity and wages and a “social market economy” in which competition rewards the accumulation of firm-level capabilities and worker skills with a more egalitarian wage structure.

The gender wage gap in the public and private sectors: The Spanish experience

Using microdata from the Wage Structure Survey, we analyse the gender wage gap in the private and public sectors, considering the whole wage distribution. The main contribution is to assume that the decision to work in a sector is a prior process determined endogenously in the model. Thus, the usual Ordinary Least Square estimation is inconsistent, and it is necessary to use alternative techniques. We use quantile regression techniques to calculate how much of the gap is due to differences in returns between men and women and sectors, taking into account the sample selection bias. We find that the size of the gap attributed to different returns varies substantially across the wage distribution. Public sector employees are paid higher wages, on average, than their counterparts in the private sector, and the gap is wider for women. Moreover, the proportion of the gender wage gap explained (by different characteristics) tends to be greater for workers who are at the bottom of the wage distribution in both sectors. A look at the whole wage distribution reveals that discrimination in the gender wage gap is typically higher at its top than at its bottom, suggesting that glass ceilings are more prevalent than sticky floors for both men and women.

Women's Approaches to Negotiation: The Role of Negotiation in the Gender Pay Gap

The gender pay gap has a long and well-documented history. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was passed in an attempt to combat this gap in wages between men and women, but as of 2019 women still on average earn less than 80% of what their male counterparts do. Countless factors contribute to this discrepancy, from gender norms to workplace culture to wage structure and so much more. Though there is a significant literature discussing the gender pay gap, the majority of it focuses on external barriers to equality, including but not limited to institutional inequality, social norms, and workplace discrimination. Fewer scholars have addressed the internalized barriers to equality in the workplace that women face—such as how gendered norms and expectations may affect workplace behaviors such as negotiating compensation packages. My project employs qualitative content coding and individual breakdown of semi-structured, in-depth interviews to investigate if, how, and why women’s approaches to negotiation may contribute to pay inequity in professional positions. My findings confirm a discrepancy in rates of negotiation between male and female respondents. They also suggest that divergences in the circumstances surrounding negotiations as well as in approaches to negotiation exist between men and women, and among workers with various levels of seniority. Finally, my findings in combination with existing literature suggest a link between negotiation and the gender pay gap.