The Occupational Structures of Low- and High-Wage Service Sector Establishments

Eliza Forsythe

No 18-292, Upjohn Working Papers from W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research

Abstract: The occupational structure of an establishment provides a description of its production process by detailing the distribution and relative intensity of tasks performed. In this paper, I investigate whether there are substantive differences in the occupational structures of low- and high-wage service sector establishments. I show that low-wage establishments organize production to use less labor in professional occupations compared to high-wage establishments operating in the same local-labor market and industry. In addition, low-wage establishments employ fewer individuals in information technology occupations, employ fewer managers, and have substantially wider supervisory spans of control. These results indicate that, despite operating in the same narrowly defined labor and product markets, low-wage establishments organize production to less intensively use labor in skilled occupations.

Keywords: Occupations; Wage Inequality; Organization of Production; Service Industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 J31 L23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma
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Journal Article: The Occupational Structures of Low- and High-Wage Service Sector Establishments (2019)
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