The Impact of Deregulation on the Employment and Wages of Airline Mechanics

This paper describes the effects of deregulation on negotiated wage rates and employment levels of aircraft mechanics in the scheduled airline industry between 1978 and 1984. A firm-by-firm analysis of the established trunk airlines shows relatively small changes in real wage rates since 1978, and only recent changes in interfirm wage differentials. Employment growth rates, however, have varied widely, both among the established trunk airlines and between them and the new-entrant and former local service airlines. The data suggest that deregulation shifted 5,000 to 7,000 maintenance jobs from the established trunks to the smaller airlines. The shift may have reduced average hourly earnings of mechanics in the industry by as much as 5 percent below the level they would have reached in the absence of deregulation.