Relative wage effect in the contract construction industry

The purpose of this paper is to measure the amount which unionization in the contract construction industry raises hourly earnings of members in excess of what they would have received in absence of unionization. This study is divided into five chapters, each containing several sections. This chapter summarizes each of the major topics contained in the text to give the reader a glimpse of the total project before delving into details. Chapter 2 establishes the theoretical model necessary to explain the existence and maintenance of a significant wage differential as well as to examine the structure of the construction industry and the hypothesis to be tested in this paper. A review of the literature in chapter 3 investigates the various methodological techniques used to measure relative wages. Chapter 4 states the method of analysis employed in this study, lists data sources and compares the method chosen with other techniques. In the final chapter, the findings are presented for the overall relative wage effect and the influence of unionism based upon race, occupation, experience and establishment size is probed.