Introduction to Wage Differentials: An International Comparison

Toshiaki Tachibanaki

Chapter 1 in Wage Differentials, 1998, pp 1-34 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Wages (or earnings) are probably the most important variable together with employment in labour economics. A large number of studies associated with labour are concerned with wages and/or employment (and thus unemployment). Wages play a central role in the determination of both the supply and the demand for labour, which determine both employment and unemployment through market forces. Also, wages can be regarded as the most important source of individual (or household) income which determines the well-being of individuals. However, qualifications of employees and contributions to a firm are quite different. Thus, it is natural that an employer pays different wage levels among various employees. The current book is concerned with the latter aspect, namely, ‘how wages are distributed and differentiated among wage earners’, as the central subject. Its emphasis is an international comparison of occupational wage differentials. We examine the following eight countries for our comprehensive comparison: Japan, (South) Korea, the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK, Germany and France. Motivations for choosing these countries will be described later in this chapter.

Keywords: Wage Differential; Wage Inequality; Wage Distribution; Wage Structure; Wage Determination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998
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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-26281-6_1

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