Types of Wage Differentials

Wages differ in different employments or occupations, industries and localities, and also between persons in the same employment or grade. One therefore comes across such terms as occupational wage differentials, inter-industry, inter-firm, inter-area or geographical differentials and personal differentials.

Wage differentials have been classified into three categories:

1. The differentials that can be attributed to imperfections in the employment markets, such as the limited knowledge of workers in regard to alternative job opportunities available elsewhere; obstacles to geographical, occupational or inter-firm mobility of workers; or time-lags in the adjustment of resource distribution and changes in the scope and structure of economic activities. Examples of such wage differentials are inter-industry, inter-firm, and geographical or inter- area wage differentials.
2. The wage differentials which originate in social values and prejudices and which are deeper and more persistent than economic factors. Wage differentials by sex, age, status or ethnic origin belong to this category.
3. Occupational wage differentials, which would exist even if employment markets were perfect and social prejudices were absent.

Type 1. Occupational Differentials:

These indicate that since different occupations require different qualifications, different wages of skill and carry different degrees of responsibility, wages are usually fixed on the basis of the differences in occupations and various degrees of skills.

The basic functions of such differentials are:

(a) To induce workers to undertake “more demanding”, “more agreeable or dangerous” jobs, or those involving “a great chance of unemployment, or wide uncertainty of earnings.”

(b) To provide an incentive to young person to incur the costs of training and education and encourage workers to develop skills in anticipation of higher earnings in future.

(c) To perform a social function by way of determining the social status of workers.

In countries adopting a course of planned economic development, skill differentials play an important role in manpower and employment programmes, for they considerably help in bringing about an adequate supply of labour with skills corresponding to the requirements of product plans.

Inter-occupational differentials may comprise skilled, unskilled and manual wage differentials; non-manual and manual (white and blue-collar); and general skill differentials. Occupational wage differentials generally follow the changes in the relative supplies of labour to various occupations.

Type 2. Inter-Firm Differentials:

Inter-firm differentials reflect the relative wage levels of workers in different plants in the same area and occupation.

The main causes of inter-firm wage differentials are:

(a) Difference in the quality of labour employed by different firms

(b) Imperfections in the labour market

(c) Differences in the efficiency of equipment, supervision and other non-labour factors.

Differences in technological advance, managerial efficiency, financial capacity, age and size of the firm, relative advantages and disadvantages of supply of raw materials, power and availability of transport facilities, these also account for considerable disparities in inter-firm wage rates. Lack of co-ordination among adjudication authorities, too, is responsible for such anomalies.

Type 3. Inter-Area or Regional Differentials:

Such differentials arise when workers in the same industry and the same occupational group, but living in different geographical areas, are paid different wages. Regional wage differentials may be conceived in two senses. In the first sense, they are merely a part of inter-industry differentials in a particular region.

“The industry mix varies from one area to another, and for this reason alone, the general average of wages would be expected to vary.” 22 In the second sense, they may represent real geographical differentials, resulting in the payment of different rates for the same type of work. In both cases, regional differentials affect the supply of manpower for various plants in different regions.

Such differentials are the result of living and working conditions, such as unsatisfactory or irksome climate, isolation, substandard housing, disparities in the cost of living and the availability of manpower. In some cases, regional differentials are also used to encourage planned mobility of labour.

Type 4. Inter-Industry Differentials:

These differentials arise when workers in the same occupation and the same area but in different industries are paid different wages. Inter-industry differentials reflect skill differentials. The industries paying higher wages have mostly been industries with a large number of skilled workers, while those paying less have been industries with a large proportion of unskilled and semi-skilled workers.

Other factors influencing inter-industry differentials are the extent of unionisation, the structure of product markets, the ability to pay, labour-capital ratio, and the stage of development of an industry.

Type 5. Personal Wage Differentials:

These arise because of differences in the personal characteristics (age or sex) of workers who work in the same plant and the same occupation. “Equal pay for equal work” has been recommended by the I.L.O. Convention (No. 100), as also by Industrial Courts, Labour Tribunals, the Minimum Wages Committee and the Fair Wage Committee. But in practice this principle has not been fully implemented because in occupations which involve strenuous muscular work, women workers, if employed, are paid less than men workers.

Lack of organisation among women employees, less mobility among them, their lower subsistence and their weak constitution are other reasons which bring them lower wages than their male counterparts receive.