학회소식
[2019년 제 2차] Employee Pay and Leverage: Worker-Level Evidence
작성자 : 관리자
조회수 : 41
게시일 :
2019-06-04
In this paper, I examine the relationship between employee pay and firm leverage using novel data
that links worker characteristics and matched firms’ accounting data. Even after controlling for
worker-level characteristics, I find a significant negative relationship between employee pay and
leverage, a finding that aligns with recent studies showing negative relationships between firms’
average employee pay and leverage. This supports the notion that higher leverage plays a significant
role in the renegotiation of senior claims rather than serving as a compensating differential ingredient.
The negative effect of leverage on wages is more pronounced among the middle managers, high
tenure workers, and non-union member workers. Firms expected to have low surpluses to share with
their employees and strong union bargaining power also experience more pronouncedly negative
wage-leverage relationships.
