Apprentice pay in Britain, Germany, and Switzerland: institutions, market forces and market power

In: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/245022

Abstract

This is the accepted version of the original publication in the European Journal of Industrial Relations, which is available online at http://ejd.sagepub.com/content/19/3/201. ; The pay of metalworking apprentices is high in Britain, middling in Germany and low in Switzerland. We analyse these differences using fieldwork evidence and survey data, drawing on both economic and institutionalist theories. Several institutional attributes influence apprentice pay, partly by affecting supply and demand in markets for training places. Institutional support for apprenticeship training appears to involve important complementarities in both Germany and Switzerland, in contrast to Britain's less coherent and more market-driven approach. ; We thank the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Anglo-German Foundation, SKOPE (Oxford), the Swiss federal government (OPET/SERI) and WZB (Berlin) for financial support.