This paper provides evidence on the role of non-base wage components as a channel for firms to adjust labour costs in the event of adverse shocks. It uses data from a firm-level survey for 25 European countries that covers the period 2010–2013. We find that firms subject to nominal wage rigidities, which prevent them from adjusting base wages, are more likely to cut non-base wage components when they are hit by negative shocks. Firms thus use non-base wage components as a strategic margin to overcome base wage rigidity. We also show that while non-base wage components exhibit some degree of downward rigidity this is smaller than that observed for base wages.

中文翻译：

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非基本工资构成了工资对冲击的适应能力的来源：欧洲公司的证据，2010-2013年

本文提供了证据，说明非基本工资成分在企业遭受不利冲击时作为企业调整人工成本的渠道的作用。它使用了来自2010年至2013年期间针对25个欧洲国家的公司级调查的数据。我们发现，受到名义工资刚性影响的公司（会阻止他们调整基本工资），在遭受负面冲击时更有可能削减非基本工资组成部分。因此，企业使用非基本工资构成部分作为战略保证金，以克服基本工资僵化的问题。我们还表明，尽管非基本工资组成部分表现出一定程度的向下刚性，但比基本工资所观察到的要小。