Private and social wage expansion in the advanced market economies

Abstract

The sources of family income in advanced market economies have become increasingly complex. A family's real income depends not only on the money wages its members receive in the labor market, but also on the extent to which those wages are taxed and the public services and transfer payments it receives from the state. The income and services households receive from the state constitute a social wage, which is growing in importance relative to the private wage. Growth in state support of living standards has added a new institutional locus of conflict over the distribution of income.