Higher Wages in a High Inflation World: What the United States Can Learn from Icelandic Unionization
Document Type
Blog Post
Publication Date
10-31-2023
Graduation Year
2025
Abstract
Since March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the entire world, inflation has slowly been on the rise. OECD countries across the globe immediately felt the effects of inflation and despite the increase in wages amongst workers globally, inflation outpaced nominal wage growth for many countries. Over the past couple years, many of the capitalist OECD countries have dealt with inflation in various ways with varying degrees of success. One capitalist country in particular has kept up with real wage growth despite inflation: Iceland. Iceland is the most unionized country in the world with 90 percent of its workplace unionized. While inflation has posed a large risk to workers in the United States, Iceland has been able to secure gains for its workers while also not exacerbating its inflation.
This post was originally published on the Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review on October 31, 2023. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above.
Recommended Citation
Berroug, Jack, "Higher Wages in a High Inflation World: What the United States Can Learn from Icelandic Unionization" (2023). CICLR Online. 92.
https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/ciclr-online/92
