Reconciling the divergence in aggregate U.S. wage series

Julien Champagne, André Kurmann and Jay Stewart

No 2015-7, School of Economics Working Paper Series from LeBow College of Business, Drexel University

Abstract: According to data from the Labor Productivity and Costs (LPC) program, average hourly real compensation in the United States has grown consistently over time and become markedly more volatile since the mid-1980s. By contrast, data from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) imply that average hourly real earnings has mostly stagnated and become substantially less volatile. We show that differences in earnings concept and differences in worker coverage account for the majority of this divergence in growth and volatility. The results have important implications for the appropriate choice of aggregate wage series for macroeconomic analysis.

Keywords: Average hourly wages; Earnings-hours decomposition; Labor Productivity and Costs; Current Employment Statistics; Current Population Survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E01 E24 E30 J30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2015-12-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac
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Related works:
Journal Article: Reconciling the divergence in aggregate U.S. wage series (2017)
Working Paper: Reconciling the divergence in aggregate U.S. wage series (2016)
Working Paper: Reconciling the Divergence in Aggregate U.S. Wage Series (2016)
Working Paper: Reconciling the divergence in aggregate U.S. wage series (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:drxlwp:2015_007

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