Hipólito J. Simón Pérez

Dispersión salarial y negociación colectiva en España

The dispersion of individual salaries in Spain is determined more by the traits of the establishment that the worker belongs o than it is by the human capital or the worker’s production. This is the conclusion that is drawn when observing that salaries of workers with similar qualifications and experience (i.e. degree, seniority and age) as well as other characteristics (i.e. gender) or productive activity (professional category) vary greatly depending on the establishment. While the most widely spread hypothesis of competition postulates that supply factors prevail, what is gleaned from empirical analysis contrasts this: demand is what most affects differences in salary. The major differences in salary between workers with analogous categories and qualifications within a given branch of production and/or a given geographical area, linked to the establishment employing the workers stands as a determining factor in the interpretation of collective bargaining game dynamics. Thus, while the collective bargaining structure exerts a certain amount of constraint on differences in salary, containing agreements which are prevalently made industry by industry and are limited to geographical areas ,as is the case in Spain, this structure is far from eliminating the flexibility companies require, and enables marked differences in salaries. This differences are even greater than those in other economies with highly decentralized negotiation.