The Influence of Collective Bargaining on Teachers' Salaries in New York State

Abstract

This study tests a model of teacher salary determination with data describing several aspects of all school districts in New York state, outside of New York City. The authors find that collective bargaining is not significant in explaining variations in 1968 teacher salaries among all school districts, but bargaining did have a significant effect among small districts and on the rate of salary change from 1967 to 1968. On the whole, however, the authors conclude that the results of this and other studies show that bargaining has had a surprisingly minor effect on teacher salaries.

The Wage Impact of Teachers Unions: A Meta‐analysis

“…Part of the literature we survey attempts to identify the type of teachers that are served by the unions by examining the differing impacts on new and senior teachers earnings (Han 2012;Lipsky and Drotning 1973;West and Mykerezi 2011;Winters 2011;Zwerling and Thomason 1995). The consensus is that teachers unions increase the earnings of senior teachers, but not new hires.…”

“…We allow weights to vary within a study because this is not a reasonable assumption for our set of studies. See Han (2012), Lipsky and Drotning (1973), or Tracy (1988) for examples where sample sizes vary substantially within a study.…”

“…The studies surveyed use data from years ranging from 1967 to 2008. The studies utilizing data from 1967 to 1969 are Lipsky and Drotning (1973) and Kasper (1970). We include these studies and all other estimates coming from 1970s data in the 1970s category.…”

The Effect of Collective Bargaining on Teacher Pay: A Review of the Evidence

“…In the article that this author wrote with Drotning, it was argued that "use of the teacher salary scale is particularly appropriate, since this is normally the subject of direct negotiation in collective bargaining." 16 But it was pointed out that since a district's actual salary costs depend on the placement of teachers within the schedule (i.e., on the characteristics of the teacher workforce in terms of experience and earned credits), the use of scheduled salaries may give a misleading picture of the true economic benefits (and costs) of teacher bargaining. The average salary actually paid is a much better index of those costs and benefits even though average salary is not the direct subject of negotiations.…”