• Media type: Report; E-Book
  • Title: Turning a blind eye? Compliance to minimum wages and employment
  • Contributor: Garnero, Andrea [Author]; Lucifora, Claudio [Author]
  • imprint: Milano: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza (DISCE), 2020
  • Language: English
  • Keywords: J52 ; J31 ; sectoral minimum wages ; J08 ; J83 ; compliance ; Collective bargaining
  • Origination:
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  • Description: In this paper, we explore the relationship between non-compliance with bargained minimum wages and employment. We illustrate the role of labour courts with respect to the Constitutional provision of "fair" wage and sketch a model in which firms choose their desired levels of employment and non-compliance. We show that when employers internalize the expected costs of non-compliance, the effect of deviating from the bargained minimum wages on employment levels are modest, or null. Using data from the Italian LFS, we find evidence of a positive, but small, trade-off between non-compliance and employment. We discuss the policy implications of these findings for wage bargaining, also considering the costs that "turning a blind eye" to non-compliance implies for the Italian system of industrial relations.
  • Access State: Open Access