Seminar: Benjamin Yang (University of Washington)

Benjamin Yang is an accounting doctoral student at the University of Washington. Prior to starting his PhD, he studied accounting and public health at the University of Texas, and worked as a multistate tax consultant for two years at Deloitte. His research interests primarily consist of using archival methods to study the relationship between firm employees and corporate decision making and disclosures.

Paper: "Pay Disparity and Union Elections: Evidence from CEO Pay Ratio Disclosures"

Abstract: Pay disparity and wealth inequality are growing concerns in the United States. Given that labor unions have a history of reducing inequality by increasing employee wages, I examine whether pay disparity between CEOs and employees motivates employees to unionize in the first place. Using data from CEO pay ratio disclosures, I find a positive association between pay disparity and future elections filed and won by unions, and I find that this positive association is concentrated in firms with lower costs of unionizing. In subsequent analyses, I find that both employee pay and CEO pay are individually associated with future union elections, which suggests that employees consider both components of pay disparity in their decisions to unionize. Finally, I find little evidence that the mandatory disclosure of the CEO pay ratio on proxy statements affected union elections. Collectively, my findings highlight an important but relatively unexplored determinant of unionization, which helps inform employers concerned with the costs of collective bargaining.