The Effect of Collective Bargaining on Salaries in Higher Education

Abstract

Using data from a 1977 survey of faculty from 158 U.S. colleges and universities, the author estimates that the proportional salary advantage to unionized faculty members was typically less than two percent. That differential varied considerably, however, with the length of time the institution had been organized. In addition, unionization increased the return to seniority and decreased the return to several measures of merit, including number of publications and general post-degree experience.