Pay Developments in Britain and Germany: Collective Bargaining, ‘Benchmarking', and ‘Mimetic Wages'

Werner Schmidt (1) , Bernd Dworschak

1 Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen = Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen

This article examines the impact of national industrial relations institutions on pay movements in Britain and Germany between 1980 and 2000. Pay increases are slightly higher in Britain, despite the breakdown of multi-employer bargaining and agreements in the UK and their persistence in Germany. Evidence shows that pay decisions in Britain are mainly determined by imitation and not by markets. The article suggests that a system of ‘pay benchmarking' in Britain acts as a substitute for the German ‘sectoral agreement model' and explains similarities in pay movements.

Mots clés: industrial relations; pay determination; pay developments; collective bargaining; cross-country comparison; United Kingdom; Germany

Werner Schmidt, Bernd Dworschak. Pay Developments in Britain and Germany: Collective Bargaining, ‘Benchmarking', and ‘Mimetic Wages'. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 2006, 12 (1), pp.89-109. ⟨10.1177/0959680106061370⟩. ⟨hal-00570948⟩