NCJ Number
95746
Journal
Industrial Relations Volume: 23 Issue: 3 Dated: (Fall 1984) Pages: 417-423
Date Published
1984
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Police salaries vary widely along market dimensions such as city size, city ability to pay, private sector pay levels, regional wage patterns, etc. (Feuille, Hendricks, Delaney, 1984). Observers have speculated that collective bargaining and especially the availability of compulsory interest arbitration in a State might cause police salaries in the State to become more similar over time, or to 'regress to the mean' (Stern et al., 1975; Kochan et al., 1977).
Abstract
We investigate this potential leveling effect in this note, using 1971-1981 police salary data drawn from several hundred cities in 16 States. Our analyses indicate that neither bargaining nor arbitration significantly affect the dispersion of minimum salaries; as for maximum salaries, bargaining appears to have a small leveling effect, while arbitration shows no overall impact at all. Seven footnotes are provided. (Author abstract modified)