TY - UNPB

T1 - Piece Rates and Workplace Injury: Does Survey Evidence Support Adam Smith?

AU - Bender, K A

AU - Green, C

AU - Heywood, J S

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - While piece rates are routinely associated with greater productivity and higher wages, they may also generate unanticipated effects. This paper uses cross-country European data to provide among the first broad survey evidence of a strong link between piece rates and workplace injury. Despite unusually good controls for workplace hazards, job characteristics and worker effort, workers on piece rates suffer a large 5 percentage point greater likelihood of injury. As injury rates are typically not controlled for when estimating the premium to piece rates, this raises the specter that a portion of the return to piece rates reflects a compensating wage differential for risk of injury.

AB - While piece rates are routinely associated with greater productivity and higher wages, they may also generate unanticipated effects. This paper uses cross-country European data to provide among the first broad survey evidence of a strong link between piece rates and workplace injury. Despite unusually good controls for workplace hazards, job characteristics and worker effort, workers on piece rates suffer a large 5 percentage point greater likelihood of injury. As injury rates are typically not controlled for when estimating the premium to piece rates, this raises the specter that a portion of the return to piece rates reflects a compensating wage differential for risk of injury.

M3 - Working paper

T3 - Economics Working Paper Series

BT - Piece Rates and Workplace Injury: Does Survey Evidence Support Adam Smith?

PB - The Department of Economics

CY - Lancaster University

ER -