Union Membership and Native-Immigrant Labour Market Gaps
Do native workers and immigrants benefit equally from union membership? And what might explain the differences?
In a new article published in The Economic Journal, Samuel Dodini, Alexander Willén and Julia Li Zhu examine how union membership affects earnings and employment protection for native and immigrant workers in Norway.
Using large increases in Norway’s tax deduction for union dues, the researchers find that union membership increases earnings and improves employment protection for native workers. However, the benefits are substantially smaller, and often close to zero, for non-Western immigrants.
The authors explore what might explain these differences. Survey evidence suggests that immigrants receive similar information when joining unions, have similar preferences regarding job amenities and are more likely than native workers to seek assistance from unions. Nevertheless, immigrants report lower satisfaction after contacting unions for support and are more likely to believe that native workers and those with strong local networks benefit more from membership.
The findings are consistent with differences in how unions respond to their members, which may help explain the unequal outcomes. These differences are particularly pronounced in concentrated labour markets, suggesting that relying on unions to address labour market power may unintentionally increase inequalities between groups of workers.