ABSTRACT
Once the analysis is brought to this level, such overarching factors as the economic pressures of alternative wages and the institutional/legal constraints governing development of the formal bargaining relationship may be introduced as limitations on the parties’ latitude in reaching agreements. This chapter describes the public sector wage determination process to show how certain factors close to the collective bargaining process itself affect the behavior of the participants and the outcomes of negotiations. Bargaining units may be broad or narrow in terms of the different kinds of employees included in them. Several fragmented bargaining units, for instance, may enable public employees to engage in a pattern of “leapfrogging” wage adjustments over each other. The organizational structure of the public employer has important consequences for wage determination. For example, the motives of staff in the organizational subunit responsible for carrying out negotiations will affect their stands at the bargaining table.
