4 ms·

Look at Sweden. The collectively bargained pay increase was below inflation in all sectors. You should unionize for many reasons but I wouldn't trust it as an

• tapland 5y ago
  I've never seen a pay increase above ~2% here in Sweden. Some union agreements allow larger (and lower) changes if the average increase is still the decided upon percentage.
  • the-alt-one 5y ago
    Eh, I'm unionized and had a 13% pay raise. To be fair, they motivated that by saying that I should get up to speed with other engineer's raises instead of staying at a junior level (yes, I'm bragging).
    • MrPatan 5y ago
      What I'm reading here is the union kept your initial wages 13% below market
      • skinkestek 5y ago
        Not unionized[1], but this is something I'd accuse unions of. [1]: because no uninon ever manages to not try to meddle in international politics. Gandalf in LOTR had it right: he did not want power because he knew he would be tempted to try to do a lot of good things.
        • Jochim 5y ago
          This sounds like you're arguing workers should leave things to their "betters"...
          • skinkestek 5y ago
            I'm missing a "not" somewhere in there. The way it stands the downvotes are deserved. I'm personally not unionized but this is not something I would accuse the union of ;-)
      • the-alt-one 5y ago
        Nah, I was straight out of uni so taken on as a junior by the company and then given a raise as they didn't consider me junior after having me work there for 8 months or so. The union is probably involved in standard pay levels, but not much more than that.
      • Ekaros 5y ago
        Unions in Nordic countries don't stop employers from paying more, they just set minimum pay level. And usually the normal raise level. They can always pay more and usually do with fields like software engineering.
  • cycomanic 5y ago
    ? I've had a raise above 2% every year since I've come to Sweden in 2016. Our raises are determined on a scale based on performance. IIRC the average raise is negotiated by the union, but where on that scale you sit is determined by negotiation between you and your manager. Edit: Sorry I might have misread your comment. I should say that our average increase was also above 2% several of those years.
• furyg3 5y ago
  Most of the collective bargaining agreements I've heard about here in the Netherlands involve an automatic inflation correction at the end of the year.
  • lodovic 5y ago
    But regardless, the wages still keep slipping against inflation.
  • dashboardmess 5y ago
    Actually, this is false. This used to be the case in the 70s, but after the Wassenaar Agreement[1], this was removed from nearly all collective bargaining agreements[2]. Some have salary grades that increase automatically by year of experience, but this isn’t the same, because it won’t increase the wages for people starting their career. In general, the stronger unions are able to negotiate salary raises above inflation[3], but this of course depends on the percentage of employees that actually join a union. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassenaar_Agreement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassenaar_Agreement [2] https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/koopkrachtreparatie-het-kabinet-kan-wat-doen-aan-het-minimumloon-de-rest-is-aan-de-polder~bee3ebe5/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fduckduckgo.com%2F https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/koopkrachtrepar... [3] I recently verified it for my own collective bargaining agreement, and on average, the raises were about 1% point higher than the inflation