ERIC Number: ED461761
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2002-Jan
Pages: 6
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1075-8445
EISSN: N/A
The New Employment Contract?
Levine, David I.
Employment Research, p4-6 Jan 2002
In the classic employment contract, especially at large companies, wages were not strongly responsive to the labor market. Instead, individual companies had distinctive company wage levels and patterns. An exhaustive study of employers and employees in the United States and Japan examined whether the "old employment contract" has been replaced. Data on changes in internal labor markets, company pay structures, and the employment contract were analyzed. The study found little evidence of the existence of a "new employment contract" at least as far as the wage-setting process is concerned. Wage levels at large and small employers have become only modestly similar, and the returns on education and tenure in large and small companies have not converged. The correlation between average wages in local labor markets and large company wages did not increase. No decline was observed in either inequality across employers or the distinctiveness of wage patterns within an employer. The findings were unsupportive of any single theory of changes in wage structures at large U.S. employers. It was emphasized that, although the "old employment contract" has not been replaced, public policies based exclusively on the old model of lifetime employment by a single employer have never made sense. (MN)
Descriptors: Comparative Analysis, Employer Employee Relationship, Employment Patterns, Employment Practices, Foreign Countries, Fringe Benefits, Human Capital, Labor Economics, Labor Force Development, Labor Market, Labor Turnover, Personnel Management, Policy Formation, Public Policy, Salary Wage Differentials, Small Businesses, Theory Practice Relationship, Trend Analysis
W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 300 South Westnedge Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49007. Tel: 616-343-4330; Fax: 616-343-7310; e-mail: publications@we.upjohninst.org, Web site: http://www.upjohninst.org. For full text: http://www.upjohninst.org/publications/newsletter/levine_ 102.pdf.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Upjohn (W.E.) Inst. for Employment Research, Kalamazoo, MI.
Identifiers - Location: Japan; United States
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A