We address developments in collective wage bargaining arrangements in northern Europe in the light of two major political-economic challenges: EU eastern enlargement and the financial and economic crisis which broke in 2008. Through the lens of debates on convergence and divergence, we examine three dimensions of collective wage bargaining: coordination across sectors; articulation between different levels; and regulation of wage floors. We draw on findings from five countries and four sectors. Our analysis undermines the proposition that developments exhibit a common liberalising trajectory. It points to the differential impact of the two major political-economic challenges as between sectors, highlights similar and different policy responses by actors within a sector across countries, reveals differing consequences for governance of collective wage bargaining across sectors and countries, and finds no uniform trend in wage inequality outcomes.
Marginson, P., & Dølvik, J. E. (2020). Northern European collective wage bargaining in the face of major political-economic challenges: common and differing trajectories. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1024258920937961
