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The Great Compression: The Wage Structure in the United States at Mid-Century
Abstract
The era of wage stretching has been a current focus, but we direct attention here to a decade of extraordinary wage compression—the 1940s. Wages narrowed by education, job experience, and occupation, and compression occurred within cells. The 90–10 differential in the log of wages for men was 1.45 in 1940 but 1.06 in 1950. By the late 1980s it returned to its 1940 level, thus restoring a dispersion of 50 years ago. World War II and the National War Labor Board share some credit for the Great Compression, but much was due to an increased demand for unskilled labor when educated labor was greatly expanding.
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Citations
Cites
Changes in Relative Wages, 1963-1987: Supply and Demand Factors
Katz, L. F., & Murphy, K. M. (1992) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.2307/2118323 · Cited by 4,793
Cited by
Changes in Relative Wages, 1963-1987: Supply and Demand Factors
Katz, L. F., & Murphy, K. M. (1992) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.2307/2118323 · Cited by 4,793
Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings
Acemoglu, D., & Autor, D. (2011) · Handbook of Labor Economics · doi:10.1016/s0169-7218(11)02410-5 · Cited by 3,799
Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-1998
Piketty, T., & Saez, E. (2003) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1162/00335530360535135 · Cited by 3,769
Precarious work, insecure workers: Employment relations in transition
Kalleberg, A. L. (2009) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.1177/000312240907400101 · Cited by 2,998
Top Incomes in the Long Run of History
Atkinson, A. B., Piketty, T., & Saez, E. (2011) · Journal of Economic Literature · doi:10.1257/jel.49.1.3 · Cited by 2,362
Metadata
- Authors
- Goldin, C., & Margo, R. A.
- Venue
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1992-02-01
- Volume
- 107
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-34
- ISSN
- 0033-5533 (ISSN-L)
- 1531-4650
- OpenAlex
- W2135293663
- Cited by
- 764
- References
- 1
- FWCI
- 55.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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