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Worker Centers and Day Laborers’ Wages*
Author(s) -
Meléndez Edwin J.,
Visser M. Anne,
Theodore Nik,
Valenzuela Abel
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/ssqu.12054
Subject(s) - endogeneity , hourly wage , labour economics , wage , economics , national longitudinal surveys , efficiency wage , intermediary , selection bias , demographic economics , medicine , finance , pathology , econometrics
Objective The objective of this study was to assess the impact of day laborer worker centers on the hourly wages earned by day laborers. Methods Using data from the National Day Labor Survey, a two‐step method was estimated to measure the wage impacts of day labor worker centers, and to control for endogeneity and selection bias. Estimated wages were compared across hiring sites to determine whether or not a wage premium was earned by workers who participate in day labor worker centers. Results We find a modest, but statistically significant, wage premium earned by workers who participate in day labor worker centers, as well as evidence suggestive of the capacity of worker centers to mitigate market advantages associated with informal hiring sites. Conclusions We argue that while worker centers remain the most effective means through which day labor markets can be regulated and workers’ wages improved, increasing the regulatory capacity of these labor market intermediaries will require a significant “scaling up,” so that they can more fully influence the larger political, economic, and social contexts in which the day labor economy is embedded.