Article Green Open Access 2013

Apprentice pay in Britain, Germany and Switzerland: Institutions, market forces and market power

RP
Ryan, Paul
 BU
Backes-Gellner, Uschi
 TS
Teuber, Silvia
 WK
Wagner, Karin
European Journal of Industrial Relations
Journal · Vol. 19 · Issue 3 · pp. 201-220
Abstract

The pay of metalworking apprentices is high in Britain, middling in Germany and low in Switzerland. We analyse these differences using fieldwork evidence and survey data, drawing on both economic and institutionalist theories. Several institutional attributes influence apprentice pay, partly by affecting supply and demand in markets for training places. Institutional support for apprenticeship training appears to involve important complementarities in both Germany and Switzerland, in contrast to Britain's less coherent and more market-driven approach. © The Author(s) 2013.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Apprenticeship training Trade unions Education systems collective bargaining employers' associations monopsony power pay structure public subsidies training contracts

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations
Universität Zürich, Zurich, ZH, Switzerland
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
Berlin University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany
Funding & Acknowledgements
Economic and Social Research Council, ESRC
Grant: ES/G020183/1
We thank the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Anglo-German Foundation, SKOPE (Oxford), the Swiss federal government (OPET/SERI) and WZB (Berlin) for financial support.
Economic and Social Research Council, ESRC
We thank the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Anglo-German Foundation, SKOPE (Oxford), the Swiss federal government (OPET/SERI) and WZB (Berlin) for financial support.
Singapore Eye Research Institute, SERI
We thank the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Anglo-German Foundation, SKOPE (Oxford), the Swiss federal government (OPET/SERI) and WZB (Berlin) for financial support.
Bundesbehörden der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft
We thank the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Anglo-German Foundation, SKOPE (Oxford), the Swiss federal government (OPET/SERI) and WZB (Berlin) for financial support.
Hans Böckler Stiftung
We thank the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Anglo-German Foundation, SKOPE (Oxford), the Swiss federal government (OPET/SERI) and WZB (Berlin) for financial support.
References 10 References
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