Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
The effect of union wage gains of private-sector blue-collar workers on the size distribution of family incomes and the level of poverty in 1970 is examined in this paper. Collective bargaining wage gains are found to compress the distribution of income among union families. When union and nonunion families are combined, however, the union impact on measured inequality is negligible, due in part to the fact that, on average, middle-income families reap the largest gains from collective bargaining. The impact of union wage gains on the incidence of poverty also is very small.