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Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until December 18, 2025

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Three Studies of Inequality and the Returns to Worker Power in the United States

Rhodes, Alec P.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1691507541245621

Abstract Details

2023, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Sociology.
This dissertation consists of three studies of worker power and economic inequality. The studies extend inequality research by assessing the impacts of worker bargaining power on two less commonly examined outcomes: household wealth and employer-provided fringe benefits. I conceptualize and measure several types of worker power, spanning marketplace and associational forms, measured at the individual, local-regional, and institutional scales. The studies broaden theories of how worker bargaining power influences the wage and income distributions to the case of wealth and fringe benefits. In the first chapter, I examine the relationship between labor union coverage and household wealth accumulation and inequality. Informed by life course theories of cumulative advantage, I develop novel measures of cumulative exposure to unionization across the career. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1979 Cohort (NLSY-79) and fixed-effects regression, I find that cumulative career union coverage supports wealth accumulation. This positive association is driven by the influence of union coverage on the accumulation of savings and durable assets. Unconditional quantile regression models reveal that career union coverage is more strongly associated with increases in wealth for low- and middle- than high-wealth individuals. Results suggest worker power is associated with a more equal distribution of wealth and that deunionization contributed to rising wealth inequality among this cohort. The second chapter advances research on the determinants of job quality by considering the effects of worker power on fringe benefit offers. Using uniquely comprehensive data on benefits in the NLSY-79, I leverage changes in union coverage status due to involuntary job displacements (layoffs and business closures) to estimate the effects of unionization on the number of fringe benefits made available to workers by their employers. I find that transitioning to a union job is associated with substantial increases in fringe benefits and that the positive effects of unionization on fringe benefits are particularly strong for low-wage workers. Results are consistent with arguments that worker power helps create higher quality jobs. In the final chapter, I ask how policies that disempower workers influence worker compensation. I focus on the case of Right to Work laws implemented in Rust Belt states during the 2010s. Drawing on relational theories of power and inequality, I argue that Right to Work laws reduce compensation by weakening worker bargaining power. Using individual-level data on wages, retirement, and health insurance benefits from the Current Population Survey and two-way state and year fixed-effects models, I find that employer-provided retirement coverage declines after Right to Work. I also find that Right to Work moderates the associations between market conditions and benefit coverage. Results support theoretical claims that workers’ ability to translate marketplace power into higher compensation depends in part on associational power.
Rachel E. Dwyer (Advisor)
Stephanie Moulton (Committee Member)
Vincent J. Roscigno (Committee Member)
Michael Vuolo (Committee Member)
219 p.
Sociology
Benefits; Inequality; Job Quality; Quantile Regression; Labor Unions; Life Course; Longitudinal; Power; Right to Work Laws; Two-Way Fixed-Effects Regression; Wealth; Work and Labor Markets

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Rhodes, A. P. (2023). Three Studies of Inequality and the Returns to Worker Power in the United States [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1691507541245621

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Rhodes, Alec. Three Studies of Inequality and the Returns to Worker Power in the United States. 2023. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1691507541245621.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Rhodes, Alec. "Three Studies of Inequality and the Returns to Worker Power in the United States." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2023. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1691507541245621

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1691507541245621
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.