Wage Stagnation and the Decline of Standardized Pay Rates, 1974–1991

Maxim Massenkoff and Nathan Wilmers

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2023, vol. 15, issue 1, 474-507

Abstract: Using new establishment-by-occupation microdata, we show that the use of discretionary wage setting significantly expanded in the 1970s and 1980s. Increasingly, wages for blue-collar workers were not standardized by job title or seniority but instead subject to managerial discretion. When establishments abandoned standardized pay rates, wages fell, particularly for the lowest-paid workers in a job and for those in establishments that previously paid above market rates. This shift away from standardized pay rates, in context of a broader decline in worker bargaining power, accelerated the decline in real wages experienced by blue-collar workers in the 1980s.

JEL-codes: J31 J33 J52 M52 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1257/app.20200819

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