Firm Wages and Amenities

公司工资政策解释了超过20%的收入差异和公司和工人之间的收入不平等。劳动经济学家认为，这种工资差异是由于公司之间非工资福利的差异，因为公司用更高的工资来补偿较低的非工资福利。现有的方法不允许研究人员估计那些没有被较低的工资“补偿”的便利设施的价值。为了估计公司提供的非工资便利设施的总价值，研究人员进行了一项大规模的工人调查，要求工人对特定公司提供的假想工作机会进行排名。工人的选择揭示了每家公司提供的非工资便利设施的总价值。研究人员将把这些价值与公司提供的工资和工资溢价联系起来，并使用产生的数据来估计工资和福利之间的关系。如果高薪公司比低薪公司提供更多的非工资福利，那么现有的不平等估计(仅基于工资)可能低估了劳动力市场的总体不平等水平；反过来也可能是正确的。这项研究的结果将为减少劳动力市场不平等的政策提供指导，并有助于将美国确立为减少公司之间工资不平等的全球领导者。通过这样做，研究结果还可以帮助提高劳动力市场的效率。该项目使用德国一项大规模员工调查的数据，考察了公司提供非工资便利设施的异质性是否会抑制或放大总的劳动报酬不平等。这项调查要求工人将特定公司提供的工资与研究人员提供的工资进行排名。一组问题集中在研究人员指定的公司的报价上，而另一组问题集中在这名工人表示他们会考虑的公司上。工人们还被要求在假设公司通勤或未来工资增长的价值不变的情况下重新排列工资待遇。调查结果允许私人投资机构应用产业组织文献中的标准工具来估计公司提供的非工资便利设施的价值。PI将这些值与这些公司的墨迹雇主-雇员数据联系起来，以估计非工资福利与这些公司提供的工资溢价之间的关系。然后，研究人员将检验仅基于工资溢价的不平等衡量标准在多大程度上低估或夸大了公司提供的薪酬总额的不平等。这项研究的结果将为减少劳动力市场不平等的政策提供指导，并有助于将美国确立为减少公司之间工资不平等的全球领导者。此外，结果还可以改善劳动力市场的功能，从而促进经济增长。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Firm wage policies explain over twenty percent of the variation in earnings and earnings inequality across firms and workers. Labor economists argue that this wage differential is due to differences in non-wage amenities across firms as firms compensate for low non-wage amenities with higher wages. Existing methods do not allow researchers to estimate the value of amenities that are not “compensated for” by lower wages. To estimate the total value of non-wage amenities provided by firms, the researchers have conducted a large-scale worker survey that asked workers to rank hypothetical job offers provided by specific firms. Workers’ choices reveal the total value of non-wage amenities provided by each firm. The researchers will link these values to the wage and wage premia offered by firms and use the resulting data to estimate the relationship between wages and amenities. If high wage firms provide more non-wage amenities than low-wage firms, existing estimates of inequality (based only on wages) may understate the overall level of inequality in the labor market; the reverse may also be true. The results of this research will provide guidance on policies to reduce labor market inequalities as well as help to establish the US as a global leader in reducing wage inequalities across firms. In so doing, the research results could also help improve the efficiency of labor markets.This project examines whether heterogeneity in firms’ provision of non-wage amenities dampens or magnifies total labor compensation inequality, using data from a large-scale survey of employees in Germany. The survey asked workers to rank offers from specific firms with researcher-provided wage offers. One set of questions focused on offers from researcher-specified firms while another set of questions focused on firms the worker said they would consider. Workers were also asked to re-rank offers under the assumption firms did not vary in commuting or in the value of future wage growth. The survey results allow the PIs to apply standard tools from the industrial organization literature to estimate the value of non-wage amenities provided by firms. The PIs link these values to inked employer-employee data of those firms to estimate the relationship between non-wage amenities and the wage premia offered by such firms. The researchers will then examine the extent to what measures of inequality based only on wage premia understate or overstate inequality in the total value of compensation provided by firms. The results of this research will provide guidance on policies to reduce labor market inequalities as well as help to establish the US as a global leader in reducing wage inequalities across firms. In addition, the results could also improve the functioning of the labor market, hence increase economic growth.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.