Public Sector Pay Bargaining and Regional Labour Markets: Regional Pay Differentials for Women Working as Nurses within the UK National Health Service

Abstract

Spoor C. and Sutherland J. (2007) Public sector pay bargaining and regional labour markets: regional pay differentials for women working as nurses within the UK National Health Service, Regional Studies 41, 115-129. The policy context of this paper is the controversy over pay bargaining processes and the advantages claimed for decentralized pay bargaining as opposed to centralized bargaining for nurses, the single most important occupational grouping within the UK National Health Service and conventionally associated with a problem of labour shortages. Making use of a pooled, cross-section data set from eight successive sweeps of the Labour Force Survey, which consists of women who possess a nursing qualification, this paper examines regional wage differentials from two perspectives. First, regional wage differentials accruing to women employed as nurses within the National Health Service are examined. These differentials are seen to be sizeable, evidence compatible with an existing degree of localization in a predominantly centralized system of pay determination. Furthermore, the values of these regional wage differentials correlate positively with differences in regional mean hourly wages. Then, regional wage differentials accruing to women employed as nurses within the National Health Service relative to those employed in other occupations/sectors are examined. Again, the magnitude of the differentials is considerable. In this instance, however, the values of the regional wage differentials measured on this basis are inversely correlated with differences in regional mean hourly wages, a result which is interpreted as a need for some degree of local control over nurses' pay to ensure that pay competitiveness within certain regions is maintained. Spoor C. et Sutherland J. (2007) Les negociations salariales dans le secteur public et les marches du travail regionaux: les ecarts des salaires des infirmieres dans les services de sante britanniques, Regional Studies 41, 115-129. Le contexte de politique de cet article c'est la controverse sur les negociations salariales et les avantages supposes des negociations salariales decentralisees par rapport aux negociations centralisees au nom des infirmieres, la categorie socioprofessionnelle la plus importante au sein des services de sante britanniques et qui se voit lier normalement a la question de la penurie de main-d'oeuvre. A partir d'un ensemble de donnees transversales groupees provenant de huit fouilles successives de l'enquete sur l'emploi (Labour Force Survey) qui se compose d'infirmieres diplomees, cet article cherche a examiner les ecarts des salaires regionaux a deux temps. Dans un premier temps, on examine les ecarts des salaires des infirmieres dans les services de sante britanniques. Ces ecarts s'averent importants, un resultat qui correspond a une certaine decentralisation existante au sein d'un systeme de negociations salariales essentiellement centralise. Qui plus est, les valeurs de ces ecarts des salaires regionaux sont en correlation etroite avec la v...