Growing Apart: The Changing Firm-Size Wage Premium and Its Inequality Consequences
Growing Apart: The Changing Firm-Size Wage Premium and Its Inequality Consequences
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DOI：
10.1287/orsc.2017.1125
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发表时间：
2017-05-01
影响因子：
4.1
通讯作者：
Lin, Ken-Hou
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cobb, J. Adam;Lin, Ken-Hou
在过去的几十年里，美国的工资不平等程度急剧上升，促使学者们为这种上升趋势提出了一些理论解释。这项研究认为，大公司一直是缓解不平等的重要劳动力市场机构。通过向中低工资员工提供比高薪员工更高的溢价，美国大公司缩小了整体工资差距。然而，随着国内劳动力市场的消亡和替代就业安排的出现，就业关系发生了更广泛的变化，削弱了大公司作为平等机构的作用。使用当前人口调查和收入和方案参与调查的数据，我们发现，在1989年，尽管所有私营部门工人都受益于公司规模的工资溢价，但工资分布中低端和中端的个人的溢价明显高于较高端的个人。从1989年到2014年，企业规模的平均工资溢价大幅下降。然而，这一下降仅限于工资分布中低端的人，而高端的人则没有变化。因此，整个工资范围内溢价的不均匀下降可能占到这一时期工资不平等加剧的20%左右，这表明企业对于研究不平等加剧非常重要。
Wage inequality in the United States has risen dramatically over the past few decades, prompting scholars to develop a number of theoretical accounts for the upward trend. This study argues that large firms have been a prominent labor-market institution that mitigates inequality. By compensating their low-and middle-wage employees with a greater premium than their higher-wage counterparts, large U.S. firms reduced overall wage dispersion. Yet, broader changes to employment relations associated with the demise of internal labor markets and the emergence of alternative employment arrangements have undermined large firms' role as an equalizing institution. Using data from the Current Population Survey and the Survey of Income and Program Participation, we find that in 1989, although all private-sector workers benefited from a firm-size wage premium, the premium was significantly higher for individuals at the lower end and middle of the wage distribution compared to those at the higher end. Between 1989 and 2014, the average firm-size wage premium declined markedly. The decline, however, was exclusive to those at the lower end and middle of the wage distribution, while there was no change for those at the higher end. As such, the uneven declines in the premium across the wage spectrum could account for about 20% of rising wage inequality during this period, suggesting that firms are of great importance to the study of rising inequality.