Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/302657 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 17140
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The increase in the real wages of British workers over the last one hundred years is often attributed to the growth in labour productivity, but this has rarely been confirmed. In the research reported here, this ascription is confronted with annual observations on wages and productivity spanning more than a century. A positive wage-productivity link is, indeed, found. However, productivity growth alone removes little of the variation over time in real wage changes. When trade union membership was rising, unions were able to direct increases in incomes to the earnings of rank-and-file workers.
Subjects: 
real wages
labour productivity
trade unions
monopsony
JEL: 
J31
J42
N14
N34
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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