This article analyses the challenge of variable pay to collective bargaining, based on a cross-national comparison that takes banking organizations in Austria, Norway, Spain and the UK as representatives of Europe's principal bargaining systems. The hypothesis is that the capacity of collective bargaining to govern variable pay varies with the bargaining system. As the findings show, articulated multi-employer bargaining is more able to govern variable pay than its unarticulated counterpart and single-employer bargaining. Within the case of articulated multi-employer bargaining, single-channel systems of employee workplace representation are superior to dual systems, all the more since the former equip the unions with selective incentives for membership.

This article discusses differences in the responses of company employee representatives to variable pay systems, drawing on a comparative study in the metalworking sector in Austria, Norway, Spain and the UK. We find that the approaches of organized labour are contingent, first, on the type of pay system and its influence on total remuneration; and second, on the role of local trade unions or works councils within the national system of pay determination.

Trade unions have changed from being male dominated to majority-female organizations. We use linked employer–employee surveys for Norway and Britain to examine whether, in keeping with a median voter model, the gender shift in union membership has resulted in differential wage returns to unionization among men and women. In Britain, while only women receive a union wage premium, only men benefit from the increased bargaining power of their union as indicated by workplace union density. In Norway, however, both men and women receive a union wage premium in male-dominated workplaces; but where the union is female dominated, women benefit more than men. The findings suggest British unions continue to adopt a paternalistic attitude to representing their membership, in contrast to their more progressive counterparts in Norway.

E SummaryThe level of union density in Norway is medium high, in contrast to the other Nordic countries where high density levels are supported by unemployment insurance funds. Developments in union density over time are stable in Norway, contrary to developments in most western European countries outside the Nordic region. This article traces the effects of unemployment insurance funds by comparing density levels in Norway with those in Finland and Sweden. In addition, the stability witnessed in union density in Norway over time is a particularly puzzling phenomenon, and the authors seek to explain it on the basis of specific institutional and labour market factors. ❖❖❖ SommaireEn Norvège, le niveau de densité syndicale est moyennement élevé par opposition aux pays nordiques où les niveaux élevés de densité sont liés à l'existence de fonds d'assurance chômage. L'évolution de la densité syndicale au cours du temps est stable en Norvège contrairement à celle de la plupart des pays occidentaux à l'exception des autres pays nordiques. Cet article analyse l'impact des fonds d'assurance chômage en comparant les niveaux de densité en Norvège avec ceux de la Finlande et de la Suède. Par ailleurs, la stabilité dont fait preuve la densité syndicale en Norvège au cours du temps constitue un phénomène particulièrement curieux. Les auteurs cherchent à l'expliquer sur la base de facteurs institutionnels spécifiques et liés au marché du travail. ❖❖❖ ZusammenfassungNorwegen verzeichnet einen mittleren gewerkschaftlichen Organisationsgrad, im Gegensatz zu anderen nordischen Ländern, in denen das Arbeitslos enversicherungs-

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