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British employers and the Social Chapter: some survey evidence
Author(s) -
Sapsford David,
Johnes Geraint,
Armstrong Harvey,
De Kervenoael Ronanl
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
industrial relations journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.525
H-Index - 3
eISSN - 1468-2338
pISSN - 0019-8692
DOI - 10.1111/1468-2338.00057
Subject(s) - legislation , labour economics , wage , employment protection legislation , low wage , business , economics , survey data collection , action (physics) , public economics , minimum wage , demographic economics , economic growth , political science , statistics , physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , law , unemployment
This note reports the results of a survey of firms operating in Britain concerning the impact on their costs and operations of the Social Action Programme. We find that the realised and anticipated adverse impacts of the legislation are rather limited, although both do appear to be greater for firms which are relatively large, skill intensive, and which have a substantial amount of trade with other EU countries. In particular, the survey results provide little evidence to suggest that the imposition of a minimum wage of £3.50 per hour would have a substantial adverse impact on employment. Evidence does, however, suggest that firms which pay relatively low wages are likely to be affected more than others by the legislation.