Rising Top, Falling Bottom: Industries and Rising Wage Inequality
Most of the rise in overall earnings inequality from 1996 to 2018 is accounted for by rising between-industry dispersion. The contribution of industries is right-skewed with the top 10 percent of four-digit NAICS industries dominating. The top 10 percent are clustered in high-paying high-tech and low-paying retail sectors. In the top industries, high-wage workers are increasingly sorted to high-wage industries with rising industry premia. In the bottom industries, low-wage workers are increasingly sorted into lowwage industries, with rising employment and falling industry wage premia. (JEL J23, J24, J31, L25, M52)
Authors
- John Haltiwanger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6164-6938)
- Henry R. Hyatt
- James R. Spletzer
Institutions
- United States Census Bureau (US)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- American Economic Review
- Published
- 2024-09-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20221574
- Citations
- 11
- Primary Topic
- Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 11.29