ADAMSON, DWIGHT W.
Labor Unions and Racial Wage Differentials: A Longitudinal Analysis
Ph.D. Dissertation, Washington State University, 1988. DAI-A 49/11, p. 3458, May 1989
Cohort(s): Young Men
ID Number: 21
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper investigates the intertemporal change in racial union wage differentials. Specifically investigated are reported longitudinal wage change results where black union joiners demonstrate a negligible wage gain from entering the union sector relative to a significantly larger wage gain for white union joiners. Also investigated are reported cross-sectional wage level results where the union wage differentials for white and black union stayers are virtually equal. The longitudinal results contradict the findings of the traditional cross-sectional studies which demonstrate consistently larger union wage differentials for black workers relative to white workers. Two longitudinal models are used to estimate the racial union differentials. The first model, which replicates the original longitudinal study, separates mobility into (and out of) the union sector from union sector stationarity. The second model incorporates employer mobility into the variables measuring change in union status, and provides a more accurate assessment of racial union effects since it isolates workers searching for new jobs from those who change union status but retain their original employer. Both models are tested using the National Longitudinal Survey data set for young men over the 1969-71, 1971-76, 1976-78, 1978-80, 1980-81 longitudinal periods. The results are mixed. The first model generally supports the original longitudinal study's finding of greater wage change effects for white union joiners, but also finds larger cross-sectional wage differentials for black union stayers. The second model also supports the findings of larger union joiner effects for whites. However, it demonstrates larger wage level differentials for black union joiners and union stayers, implying that blacks receive greater union benefits relative to respective nonunion stayer reference groups. The results indicate that whites receive a larger union effect because white union joiners, while in the nonunion sector, are less productive than black union joiners relative to their nonunion reference group--hence the white wage change is much larger when entering the union sector. Blacks union joiners, in general, maintain a positive productivity differential over black nonunion stayers, while white union joiners demonstrate a negative productivity differential relative to white nonunion stayers.

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