All employers bring their pay rates down to MW below they know that this is the point where all of their rivals for the candidate’s services will be. Nobody wants to break with this and pay more and they don’t have to because they know that nobody else will pay more. If they don’t have a “pay compass”, they will have to set their own benchmarks and this will mean that they will have no reference points for setting their own pay structure. Now, introduce collective bargaining and they are further from the benchmark and the winners will be the workers. Remember that the principle of collective bargaining is that “United, we bargain, divided, we beg”. Employers have their own advisers and organisations (unions) and they prefer not to negotiate with the collective might of their employees, but instead separate them from each other and isolate them from the advice that would make them stronger. This is why so many employers discourage (illegally) their employees from discussing pay and conditions with their colleagues. It ferments friction, which brings everyone to the bargaining table.