Wage differentials between conventional firms and non-worker cooperatives: Analysis of evidence from France

The aim of this article is to investigate the wage differentials between conventional firms and non-worker cooperatives, which has seldom been done in the literature to date. Using French administrative data, the determinants of these wage differentials are analysed. This investigation is carried out across all industries and is then repeated for the banking industry. Taking all industries into account, conventional firms offer lower wages than cooperatives. Most of this pay gap is explained by differences in the characteristics of the employees, jobs and companies. If the focus is narrowed to firms in the banking industry only, it becomes clear that conventional firms pay higher wages than cooperatives but that this gap is explained solely by differences in characteristics. However, their impact is weakened somewhat by differences in the value attributed to these characteristics, which work in favour of employees in cooperatives.