Rising between-workplace inequalities in high-income countries

Donald Tomaskovic-Devey (), Anthony Rainey, Dustin Avent-Holt, Nina Bandelj, István Boza, David Cort, Olivier Godechot, Gergely Hajdu, Martin Hällsten, Lasse Folke Henriksen, Are Skeie Hermansen, Feng Hou, Jiwook Jung, Aleksandra Kanjuo-Mrčela, Joe King, Naomi Kodama, Tali Kristal, Alena Křížková, Zoltán Lippényi, Silvia Maja Melzer, Eunmi Mun, Andrew Penner, Trond Petersen, Andreja Poje, Mirna Safi, Max Thaning and Zaibu Tufail
Additional contact information
Donald Tomaskovic-Devey: Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003
Anthony Rainey: Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003
Dustin Avent-Holt: Department of Social Sciences, Augusta University, Augusta, GA 30912
Nina Bandelj: Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92617
David Cort: Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003
Martin Hällsten: Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, Stockholm 114 18, Sweden
Lasse Folke Henriksen: Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen DK-2000, Denmark
Are Skeie Hermansen: Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Oslo N-0851, Norway
Feng Hou: Social Analysis and Modelling Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Canada K1A 0T6
Jiwook Jung: School of Labor and Employment Relations, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801
Aleksandra Kanjuo-Mrčela: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Joe King: Institute for Defense Analyses, Alexandria, VA, 22311-1882
Tali Kristal: Department of Sociology, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel
Alena Křížková: Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague 11000, Czech Republic
Zoltán Lippényi: Department of Sociology, University of Groningen, Groningen 9712 TG, The Netherlands
Silvia Maja Melzer: Department of Sociology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona 08007, Spain
Eunmi Mun: School of Labor and Employment Relations, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801
Andrew Penner: Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92617
Trond Petersen: Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720-1980
Andreja Poje: Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Max Thaning: Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, Stockholm 114 18, Sweden
Zaibu Tufail: Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92617

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020, vol. 117, issue 17, 9277-9283

Abstract: It is well documented that earnings inequalities have risen in many high-income countries. Less clear are the linkages between rising income inequality and workplace dynamics, how within- and between-workplace inequality varies across countries, and to what extent these inequalities are moderated by national labor market institutions. In order to describe changes in the initial between- and within-firm market income distribution we analyze administrative records for 2,000,000,000+ job years nested within 50,000,000+ workplace years for 14 high-income countries in North America, Scandinavia, Continental and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia. We find that countries vary a great deal in their levels and trends in earnings inequality but that the between-workplace share of wage inequality is growing in almost all countries examined and is in no country declining. We also find that earnings inequalities and the share of between-workplace inequalities are lower and grew less strongly in countries with stronger institutional employment protections and rose faster when these labor market protections weakened. Our findings suggest that firm-level restructuring and increasing wage inequalities between workplaces are more central contributors to rising income inequality than previously recognized.

Keywords: inequality; workplaces; administrative data; earnings; institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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