Institutions, Wage Differentiation and the Structure of Employment in South Africa

dc.contributor.authorNattrass, Nicoli
dc.contributor.authorSeekings, Jeremy
dc.date.accessioned2016-05-03T09:17:50Z
dc.date.available2016-05-03T09:17:50Z
dc.date.issued2012
dc.date.updated2016-05-03T08:13:34Z
dc.description.abstractInstitutions matter. More specifically, Bargaining Councils matter incontemporary South Africa in terms of their effects on the differentiation of wages and the structure of employment. Institutions established more thaneighty years ago continue today, even after the abandonment of their originalrationale in terms of perpetuating a racist hierarchy, to exclude non-privileged workers from regulated employment. Then, the excluded were confined tounregulated, lower-wage unskilled work. Today, the excluded are confined tounemployment or informal work. The consequences are most pronounced intradable, labour-intensive sectors such as the clothing industry, when nationalbargaining councils reduce inter-regional wage differentiation through settingnational minimum wages. This pushes some employers to restructure production in more capital- and skill-intensive directions, whilst some lower-wage, labour-intensive producers are forced out of business. The result is jobdestruction, especially among less skilled occupations. Because it is low-wage jobs and wage differentiation that are affected, the effects may be obscured inanalyses of wages generally (and hence total employment). BargainingCouncils can provide for better-organised employers and workers to pursueself-interest, even at the expense of less-organised employers and workers,whilst providing also an ideological umbrella that justifies the procedures and outcomes as just and necessary. The effects are compounded when wage effectsmesh with industrial policy in pushing firms towards more capital- and skill-intensive production.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationNattrass, N., & Seekings, J. (2012). <i>Institutions, Wage Differentiation and the Structure of Employment in South Africa</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Social Science Research(CSSR). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19361en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationNattrass, Nicoli, and Jeremy Seekings <i>Institutions, Wage Differentiation and the Structure of Employment in South Africa.</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Social Science Research(CSSR), 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19361en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationNattrass, N., & Seekings, J. (2012). Institutions, Wage Differentiation and the Structure of Employment in South Africa.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Working Paper AU - Nattrass, Nicoli AU - Seekings, Jeremy AB - Institutions matter. More specifically, Bargaining Councils matter incontemporary South Africa in terms of their effects on the differentiation of wages and the structure of employment. Institutions established more thaneighty years ago continue today, even after the abandonment of their originalrationale in terms of perpetuating a racist hierarchy, to exclude non-privileged workers from regulated employment. Then, the excluded were confined tounregulated, lower-wage unskilled work. Today, the excluded are confined tounemployment or informal work. The consequences are most pronounced intradable, labour-intensive sectors such as the clothing industry, when nationalbargaining councils reduce inter-regional wage differentiation through settingnational minimum wages. This pushes some employers to restructure production in more capital- and skill-intensive directions, whilst some lower-wage, labour-intensive producers are forced out of business. The result is jobdestruction, especially among less skilled occupations. Because it is low-wage jobs and wage differentiation that are affected, the effects may be obscured inanalyses of wages generally (and hence total employment). BargainingCouncils can provide for better-organised employers and workers to pursueself-interest, even at the expense of less-organised employers and workers,whilst providing also an ideological umbrella that justifies the procedures and outcomes as just and necessary. The effects are compounded when wage effectsmesh with industrial policy in pushing firms towards more capital- and skill-intensive production. DA - 2012 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2012 T1 - Institutions, Wage Differentiation and the Structure of Employment in South Africa TI - Institutions, Wage Differentiation and the Structure of Employment in South Africa UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19361 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/19361
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationNattrass N, Seekings J. Institutions, Wage Differentiation and the Structure of Employment in South Africa. 2012 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19361en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentCentre for Social Science Research(CSSR)en_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/en_ZA
dc.titleInstitutions, Wage Differentiation and the Structure of Employment in South Africaen_ZA
dc.typeWorking Paperen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceResearch paperen_ZA
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