Figure presents coefficients for time indicators before and after labour-tax-rate increases on the share of worker rights clauses. Callaway Sant’Anna (2021) estimator in the implementation of Rios-Avila et al. (2022), accounting for heterogeneous treatment effects and staggered treatment timing. Outcome: Share of worker rights (number of worker rights over the number of all clauses). Controls: Not-yet-treated observations. Event is defined as the largest labour-tax increase in a given province in the 1990s, where labour tax rate is defined as the logarithmised implicit personal income tax rate. Collective bargaining agreements allocate rights and obligations beyond wages and benefits. This column analyses 30,000 Canadian agreements from 1986 to 2015 for non-wage worker rights. Unions secure a wide range of enforceable rights, including scheduling protections, grievance procedures, and dismissal safeguards. Such clauses increase when income tax rates rise or outside job opportunities improve, showing that worker rights have measurable economic value. The findings suggest that policy debates should consider the full legal content of contracts, not just pay.
A study of 30,000 Canadian labour agreements shows unions secure a wide range of enforceable rights, including scheduling protections, grievance procedures, and dismissal safeguards.
Benjamin W. Arold, @elliottash.bsky.social, W. Bentley MacLeod, Suresh Naidu
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