O salário mínimo é visto, geralmente pelos economistas da escola liberal, como uma causa do aumento do desemprego: porque desincentiva o recrutamento para tarefas indiferenciadas (ajudantes de supermercado p.e.) ou incentiva a substituição de mão-de-obra por meios mecânicos de produção. É, segundo esta perspectiva, que explicam a tendencialmente mais baixa de desemprego nos EUA (onde o salário mínimo é muito baixo) relativamente à União Europeia onde são muito mais elevados os níveis de salários mínimos. Pelos mesmos motivos, explicam, a produtividade aumenta na razão inversa do salário mínimo.
.
No UK, que nestas questões geralmente alinha com as perspectivas norte-americanas, foi recentemente apresentado na conferência anual da Royal Economic Society relatório que conclui pelo aumento da produtividade em consequência da introdução do salário mínimo.
.
A cada qual a sua verdade.
.
Minimum wage has cut sick leave of lowest paid
By Jamie Chisholm, Economics Reporter, Financial Times
Published: April 13 2007 03:00 Last updated: April 13 2007 03:00
The introduction of the national minimum wage has boosted productivity because the lower paid now take fewer sick days, a study published today has found.
Research into the correlation between pay rates and absence from work was presented to the Royal Economic Society's annual conference by Marco Ercolani from Birmingham University and Martin Robson from Durham University.
Low-paid employees are more likely to be off sick than those on higher earnings, the report finds, and this significantly affects the workplace and economy.
The direct cost of sick leave in value of lost output is estimated at more than £11bn, about 1 per cent of the country's annual gross domestic product.
"On top of this, there are the indirect costs such as the loss of employee morale among those required to cover for absent colleagues," the report states.
But a 1 percentage point rise in the rate of growth of the real value of employee earnings cuts the rate of sickness by about 0.05 percentage points on average.
Data from the Labour Force Survey were used by the authors to make their calculations.
The minimum wage raised the pay of those low-paid employees directly affected by about 4 per cent. It led to a reduction in the rate of employee sickness absence of about 0.2 percentage points on average.
This is a little under one-tenth of the average rate of sickness absence over the period studied.
"This effect might help to explain why the introduction of the minimum wage was greeted with apparent equanimity by many employers," the authors said.
A separate survey of 382 companies across Europe by Mercer, the human resource consultancy, published yesterday, found that morethan a quarter offered additional incentives - such as bonuses and vouchers - to discourage workers from calling in sick.
"Some employers believe that by offering incentives to reduce absence, they are encouraging employees who are genuinely sick to attend work," he said.
Meanwhile, a report by Incomes Data Services has found that average pay rises edged up to 3.5 per cent in the last few months, although one in four pay deals was worth at least4 per cent.
A study of 186 settlements, mainly in private companies, showed a slight rise in the average increase from 3.42 per cent to 3.5 per cent. One in three deals in April was4 per cent or above.
Ken Mulkearn of Incomes Data Services said: ''Wage setters are currently faced with the pressure of reviewing pay levels against much higher levels of inflation than before.''
No comments:
Post a Comment