Do Wages Compensate for Anticipated Working Time Restrictions? Evidence from Seasonal Employment in Austria

This article investigates the existence of compensating wage differentials across seasonal and long-term jobs that arise due to anticipated working time restrictions. Using longitudinal information from the Austrian administrative records, we derive a definition of seasonality based on observed regularities in employment patterns. As wages change across seasonal and long-term jobs for the same individual over time, we can control for individual-specific effects and use variation in the starting month of seasonal jobs as an exogenous predictor of anticipated unemployment. We find that employers pay, on average, a positive wage differential of about 11% for seasonal jobs. © 2008 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.