TY - JOUR
T1 - Rising between-workplace inequalities in high-income countries
AU - Tomaskovic-Devey, Donald
AU - Rainey, Anthony
AU - Avent-Holt, Dustin
AU - Bandelj, Nina
AU - Boza, István
AU - Cort, David
AU - Godechot, Olivier
AU - Hajdu, Gergely
AU - Hällsten, Martin
AU - Henriksen, Lasse Folke
AU - Hermansen, Are Skeie
AU - Hou, Feng
AU - Jung, Jiwook
AU - Kanjuo-Mrčela, Aleksandra
AU - King, Joe
AU - Kodama, Naomi
AU - Kristal, Tali
AU - Křížková, Alena
AU - Lippényi, Zoltán
AU - Melzer, Silvia Maja
AU - Mun, Eunmi
AU - Penner, Andrew
AU - Petersen, Trond
AU - Poje, Andreja
AU - Safi, Mirna
AU - Thaning, Max
AU - Tufail, Zaibu
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/4/28
Y1 - 2020/4/28
N2 - It is well documented that earnings inequalities have risen in many high-income countries. Less clear are the linkages between rising income inequality and workplace dynamics, how within- and between-workplace inequality varies across countries, and to what extent these inequalities are moderated by national labor market institutions. In order to describe changes in the initial between- and within-firm market income distribution we analyze administrative records for 2,000,000,000+ job years nested within 50,000,000+ workplace years for 14 high-income countries in North America, Scandinavia, Continental and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia. We find that countries vary a great deal in their levels and trends in earnings inequality but that the between-workplace share of wage inequality is growing in almost all countries examined and is in no country declining. We also find that earnings inequalities and the share of between-workplace inequalities are lower and grew less strongly in countries with stronger institutional employment protections and rose faster when these labor market protections weakened. Our findings suggest that firm-level restructuring and increasing wage inequalities between workplaces are more central contributors to rising income inequality than previously recognized.
AB - It is well documented that earnings inequalities have risen in many high-income countries. Less clear are the linkages between rising income inequality and workplace dynamics, how within- and between-workplace inequality varies across countries, and to what extent these inequalities are moderated by national labor market institutions. In order to describe changes in the initial between- and within-firm market income distribution we analyze administrative records for 2,000,000,000+ job years nested within 50,000,000+ workplace years for 14 high-income countries in North America, Scandinavia, Continental and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia. We find that countries vary a great deal in their levels and trends in earnings inequality but that the between-workplace share of wage inequality is growing in almost all countries examined and is in no country declining. We also find that earnings inequalities and the share of between-workplace inequalities are lower and grew less strongly in countries with stronger institutional employment protections and rose faster when these labor market protections weakened. Our findings suggest that firm-level restructuring and increasing wage inequalities between workplaces are more central contributors to rising income inequality than previously recognized.
KW - Administrative data
KW - Earnings
KW - Inequality
KW - Institutions
KW - Workplaces
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85082923939&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1918249117
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1918249117
M3 - Article
C2 - 32284412
AN - SCOPUS:85082923939
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 117
SP - 9277
EP - 9283
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 17
ER -