A I A S 1

WIBAR 2:a short introduction

Maarten van Klaveren, Kea Tijdens

University of Amsterdam Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS)

15 April 2008, Bussum, NL

A I A S 2

What is WageIndicator?• A national website with

– a Salary Check– a VIP pay check– a Decent Work Check– a permanent web-survey– up-to-date work-related content– answering visitor’s emails

• Countries– 2001 Netherlands– 2004 Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Finland, Italy,

Poland, United Kingdom – 2005 Argentina, Brazil, Hungary, India, Mexico,

S-Korea, S-Africa – 2006 USA – 2007 China, Russia– 2008 France, 10 Post-Soviet countries, Sweden Chile, Colombia,

Guatemala, Paraguay – pending Slovenia, Turkey– ?? Ireland

A I A S 3

What is a Salary Check?

• 3-4 clicks1) Choose an occupation: choice of many occupations

2) Tick personal characteristics: age, gender, education, region, etc

3) Output screen: average monthly/weekly wage in an occupation, taken into account the characteristics

Extra info:– Output screen: other characteristics of the occupation

• A Salary Check – is free of charge– attracts huge numbers of visitors– is based on data collected in a web-survey

A I A S 4

What is the web-survey?

• Web-survey on work and wages– asking the visitors a favor in return to the free information on

wages – survey data is used for the Salary Check and for research– it is in the national language– it is similar across countries

• 2 * 10 minutes– part 1 collects information needed for the Salary Check– part 2 collects extra questions

• Questionnaire topics– occupation (4-dgt ISCO), education, industry (3dgt NACE)– workplace characteristics, firmsize, MNE, working conditions – employment history, job future – working hours, wages, benefits – personal questions – factual and attitudinal questions

A I A S 5

Organisation and funding

• Team in Netherlands operating worldwide – web-management – technical support and hosting– marketing, design– data- and survey management– web-tools

• National teams– web-manager(s), from media partners or trade unions – researcher(s) from universities or private institutes

• Funding– 1/3 projects: EU, development aid, ministries– 1/3 fees from countries– 1/3 projects for media companies and trade unions, licenses, banners

• International Labor Organization (ILO)– Advisor in our plans to expand to 75 countries

A I A S 6

Partners• Trade unions

– National confederations: DGB (DE), STTK, SAK (FI), ACV (BE), TUC (UK), FNV (NL), UGT, CCOO (ES), etc

– International confederations: UNI, ETUC, EMF • Online newspapers, radio, portals

– Rzeczpospolita(PL); La Nacion(AR ); I Media(RU), etc– Dutch World Broadcasting Service (NL)– UOL (BR), MSN (NL, UK), IOL (ZA)

• Career sites– Career site Monster (BE, KR, NL, SE)

• Universities, research institutes– many universities and institutes (www.wageindicator.org)

A I A S 7

WIBAR-1• Organisation

– Analyses based on WageIndicator data for 9 EU member states– Funding EU: Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue Program,

1-year project (2006/09 – 2007/08) – Cooperation with ETUC and ETUI-REHS– Book publication: Bargaining issues in Europe

• Themes– working time, low pay, training– collective bargaining coverage– work-related stress, older workers

• Comparison– within-country comparison across industries, based on scores on

5 themes – comparison across countries, based on scores on 5 themes – problem ranking of industries, based on scores on 5 themes

A I A S 8

WIBAR-2• Organisation

– Funding EU: Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue Program, 1-year project (2007/12 – 2008/11)

– Project coordinator: AIAS/University of Amsterdam, NL– Cooperation with ETUC, WSI, EMF, Ruskin College– Three conferences– Final publication (book ?)

• Themes– Analyses based on WageIndicator data for 12 EU member states– Foreign Direct Investment, based on MNE database– Effects on wages and working conditions– Home country MNE – host country MNE – domestic firm

A I A S 9

Focus– Analyse and discuss effects of foreign direct

investment (FDI) on wages and working conditions– Analyse wages and working conditions in 12 EU

member states, comparing home country MNE’s – host country MNE’s – domestic firms

– Detailed analyses of wages & working conditions and patterns of FDI for five industries:

• metal and electronics manufacturing• retail; ICT; call centres and finance• transport

– Detailed analyses of wages and working conditions in specific MNE’s across countries

– Discuss results in 3 trade union conferences

A I A S 10

How?• MNE database developed

– for five industries– for 12 EU member states– 577 MNE names with 1,057 subsidiairies

and 3,630 establishments

• WageIndicator web-survey– For the five industries, the web survey

includes a question: “What is the name of the company where you work”

– A list of establishment names from the MNE database pops up (per sub-sector and country)

– Survey data collected from April 2008 onwards

A I A S 11

3 Conferences

– Metal and electronics manufacturing:• Duesseldorf (DE): WSI + EMF• Input: draft reports AIAS

– Retail; ICT; call centres and finance:• Brussels (BE): ETUC• Input: draft reports AIAS

– Transport:• Oxford (UK): Ruskin College• Input: draft reports AIAS

A I A S 12

Focus per industry

• Themes– working time– low pay– training– collective bargaining coverage– work-related stress – older workers

• Sub-themes per industry– working time: long working hours?– low pay: position of women– etc.

A I A S 13

Preparation of conferences

• Scheduled for October 2008– one-day conferences– room hire, catering and other costs reimbursed– which dates exactly?– needed support from AIAS

• Invitation policies– maximum 20 – 25 participants per conference– travel and subsistence costs reimbursed– international trade union audience– invited speaker per conference– translations– dissemination of documents: web-based?

A I A S 14

Example: retail• MNE-database

– 93 MNE’s with 253 subsidiaries and 679 establishments (one establ. per country)

• Findings– Most internationalised sub-sectors:

supermarkets, clothing, consumer electronics– Patterns of internationalisation:

• Germany-based MNE’s to France, Netherl, Poland• French-based MNE’s to Belgium, Spain, Poland• Dutch-based MNE’s to Belgium, Germany, France• UK-based MNE’s to France, Netherl, Poland• US-based MNE’s to UK, Germany

A I A S 15

Thanks

• Interested: contact us– m.vanklaveren@uva.nl– k.g.tijdens@uva.nl

• Thank you for your attention!– www.wageindicator.org