Wage Differentials of Intermodal Transportation Carriers and Ports: Deregulation Versus Regulation

Abstract

This paper investigates the wage differentials of intermodal transportation carriers and ports under carrier economic regulation and deregulation. The estimation results suggest that the union wages of truck drivers, rail engineers and port dockworkers were comparable in the regulation period; in the deregulation period the union wages of truck drivers and rail engineers declined relative to those of dockworkers. The wage differential estimates indicate negative union hourly wage gaps for truck drivers and rail engineers of 22.7% and 6.9%, respectively, versus dockworkers. These results reflect the increase (decrease) in the relative bargaining power of dockworkers (truck drivers and rail engineers) in the deregulation period.

Container ports, local benefits and transportation worker earnings

“…This finding is consistent with previous analyses of hourly and weekly wage data (see Hirsch and Macpherson 1997;Hirsch 1988;Peoples 1998;Talley 2004), which all report that the wage premium for truckers declined following deregulation. It is important to note that these authors were able to begin their analysis in the early 1970s, well before the start of transportation deregulation.…”

“…The shift to trucking and warehousing jobs is at best a mixed blessing because these are not high-wage occupations (see Talley 2004;Monaco and Grobar 2004). Husing (2004) has argued that warehouse, trucking, courier and transportation support service employment offers long-term opportunities for upward mobility because of the application of technology in just-in-time logistics.…”

“…However, benefits are typically positively correlated with higher earnings, and so the missing data are unlikely to contradict the core findings. For example, dockworkers on the US West Coast receive substantial employer-paid benefits (Talley 2004). In addition to noting this concern, Talley also notes that CPS data do not contain information on employers.…”

“…A comparison group should indicate economy-wide trends affecting the jobs that portlogistics workers might otherwise seek or choose, but these jobs should be unaffected by the trends in the port and port-related industry that are the focus of the study. Following conventions in the literature (see Hirsch 1988;Talley 2004), the port-logistics workers are compared to those in the same occupational class, namely operators, fabricators and labourers, but not working in any one of the transportation sectors. In the remainder of the paper, the comparison workers are referred to as non-transport operators.…”

Stakeholder Contributions to Container Port Capacity: A Survey of Port Authorities

“…Port labor has been examined from the standpoint of wages (Talley 2002, Talley 2004) and productivity (Silberholz et al 1991). Technology adoption, which has been somewhat restrained at North American ports by labor unions, is addressed in works by Veras and Walton (1996), and Kia, Shayan, and Ghotb (2000).…”