Social Skills and the Individual Wage Growth of Less Educated Workers

Philippe Aghion (), Antonin Bergeaud, Richard Blundell () and Rachel Griffith ()
Additional contact information
Philippe Aghion: INSEAD
Rachel Griffith: The University of Manchester

No 1513, HEC Research Papers Series from HEC Paris

Abstract: This study employs matched employee-employer data from the UK to highlight the importance of social skills, in particular workers’ ability to work well in a team and communicate effectively with co-workers, as a driver of wage growth for workers with lower formal education. Our findings indicate that in tasks emphasizing social skills, such workers not only enjoy greater wage progression with tenure but also accrue higher returns in environments with a higher concentration of more educated colleagues. Additionally, workers’ exit occur sooner from jobs where social skills are more important. We rationalize these dynamics through a model that assesses social skills based on their complementarity with a firm’s assets and where a worker’s social skills, initially opaque to both the employee and employer, become increasingly apparent over time.

Keywords: Team Work; Social Skills; Tenure-Wage Profiles; Individual Wage Growth; Firm Pay Premium (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J31 L25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 65 pages
Date: 2024-03-29
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm and nep-ltv
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Related works:
Working Paper: Social Skills and the Individual Wage Growth of Less Educated Workers (2024)
Working Paper: Social skills and the individual wage growth of less educated workers (2024)
Working Paper: Social Skills and the Individual Wage Growth of Less Educated Workers (2023)
Working Paper: Social skills and the individual wage growth of less educated workers (2023)
Working Paper: Social Skills and the Individual Wage Growth of Less Educated Workers (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ebg:heccah:1513

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4774931

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