ABSTRACT Studies of individual earnings dynamics typically overlook firm heterogeneity, while worker and firm decompositions of earnings inequality often neglect the life cycle. We study firm effects in individual earnings dynamics for the Italian private sector population, using the covariance structure of co‐worker earnings for identification. We allow for dynamics of both worker and firm effects, as well as worker‐firm sorting and worker segregation. When workers are young, firm and worker heterogeneity explain similar shares of earnings inequality; however, over the life cycle, workers account for most of the inequality. Sorting is substantial, especially among younger workers. Segregation accounts for most of the earnings inequality between firms.

Abstract While social scientists have devoted significant effort to understanding racial economic inequalities, surprisingly little work has examined inequalities in how Black and White workers recover from job loss. Trends in racial inequalities after job loss have not been systematically examined since the mid-1990s, leaving open questions about how economic restructuring and business cycle fluctuations have shaped racial inequalities in post-displacement outcomes. In addition, extant research on racial inequalities in post-displacement outcomes has focused on inequalities among men. I use data from the 1984–2020 Displaced Workers Supplement to the Current Population Survey to offer the first historical accounting of racial inequalities in earnings changes after job displacement since the mid-1990s. Large racial inequalities in earnings losses are explained by Black workers’ relatively low levels of education, employment in vulnerable segments of the labor market, and disadvantage in finding new jobs, but also mitigated by White workers’ large earnings losses due to lost earnings advantages accumulated at their previous job. Among men, racial inequalities in post-displacement earnings increased substantially during the Great Recession, entirely due to unobserved differences between White and Black men. Using Heckman-corrected models, I demonstrate that standard ordinary least squares (OLS) models substantially underestimate racial inequalities in the effect of job displacement on earnings among men due to racial differences in workers’ likelihood of finding a new job—accounting for racial differences in selection into reemployment reveals significant racial disparities among men in the effect of displacement on earnings between 1981 and 2009.

Public sector unionization and Black-White earnings inequality

This research investigates how gender earnings inequality influences women's self-objectification and explores the mediating role of status anxiety. Across three studies with Chinese women, we tested the hypothesis that perceived earnings inequality heightens status anxiety, which in turn promotes self-objectification. In Study 1, survey data revealed a positive correlation between perceived gender earnings inequality and self-objectification. Study 2 employed an experimental design to manipulate gender earnings inequality and demonstrated that the effect of gender earnings inequality on self-objectification was mediated by increased status anxiety. In Study 3, we experimentally reduced status anxiety and found that doing so attenuated the impact of perceived gender earnings inequality on self-objectification. Across all studies, the effects were modest but consistent. These findings contribute to objectification theory by identifying status anxiety as a psychological mechanism linking structural gender inequality to women's self-objectification. Moreover, the results underscore the importance of addressing status-based concerns to mitigate the psychological consequences of gendered economic disparities.

Abstract The rise of digital platforms like YouTube has transformed content creation into a lucrative yet precarious industry. We explore the inequality in earnings among content creators (CCs) by conducting a large-scale quantitative analysis of YouTube channels from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Our findings reveal a highly skewed earning distribution, with a Gini coefficient of 0.89, indicating extreme inequality. Detailed exploratory data analyses show to what extent sociostructural factors, including gender and age, and platform-specific variables, like the number of subscribers and channel topic, influence earnings inequality among CCs. These findings underscore the presence of winner-take-all dynamics in the YouTube ecosystem. Despite the platform's potential for niche market success, the economic outcomes for CCs are highly polarized, reflecting broader inequalities present in the digital economy. This paper contributes to the understanding of social stratification in the creator economy, highlighting the need for further investigation into the mechanisms driving these inequalities.

ABSTRACTThis paper analyzes the effects of an increase in earnings inequality between skilled and unskilled workers (rising skill premium) on education decisions, intraskilled inequality, and intergenerational mobility, depending on the way higher education is funded. The rise in the skill premium encourages higher education enrollment. When higher education is costly for individuals or their families, a rising skill premium (i) improves the relative position of children from skilled families, (ii) reduces interskill intergenerational mobility, and (iii) fosters inequality across skilled workers (“intraskilled inequality”). The impact depends on education funding, and the only situation in which skilled families are not favored is when higher education is freely provided. In this case, the increase in university enrollment must come with an increase in public expenditure on higher education to prevent the deletion of the highest skills. These results are in line with the developments observed in the last four decades in advanced economies, where the constant increase in the skill premium has come with a general increase in the educational level of the population, which has been higher at the top of the skill ladder.

Earnings inequality between male and female employees is common problem found in the developing countries. Therefore, investigating the determinants of earnings is important for identifying the factors that contribute to gender disparities in the labor market. This study investigates the socio-economic and demographic factors that affect earnings among male and female employees in Rajshahi district of Bangladesh with additional focus on gender pay gap. To pursue the study, required data have been from 70 service holders reciding in Kazla and Talaimari areas under Motihar Thana of Rajshahi district. The modified Mincerian earnings function model has been employed in this study to identify the factors affecting earnings of the employees. Estimated results indicate significant earnings gaps, between male and female, in the study area. The regression revealed that earnings of the respondents depend on education level and experience, consistent with the Mincerian proposition. The negative significant coefficient of gender dummy appeared for the female indicate that women receive significantly lower earning than male controlling for other factors. Separate regressions for male and female employees gives the insights that in the Mincerian framework, earnings with respect to education of the males additionally is affected by family status and duration of working. These findings indicate the existence of gender-based earnings disparities and emphasizes on targeted policies to promote equality in the labor market.

This data visualization examines the relationship between motherhood earnings penalties and gender earnings gaps across local labor markets in France and Germany. Drawing on harmonized administrative data, the authors document a strong positive association: regions with larger motherhood penalties tend to exhibit wider gender earnings gaps. This pattern holds across all Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics second-division regions, where a 1 percent increase in the motherhood penalty corresponds to a 0.3 percent higher gender earnings gap. The relationship is even stronger within countries, with the average association rising to 0.7 percent. These findings suggest that regional differences in gender earnings inequality are strongly associated with the magnitude of motherhood penalties.

Abstract I use the universe of tax returns in Germany and a regression kink design to estimate the impacts of mothers’ parental leave benefit amounts on couple earnings inequality. I make use of a benefits cap to estimate the causal impacts for high-earning women; a group for which earnings inequality is particularly large. A lower mothers’ benefit amount results in a reduced gender gap in earnings that persists beyond the benefit period for at least nine years after the birth. The longer-term impacts are driven by couples where the mother earned more than her partner pre-birth. Simulations suggest that a 10% reduction in the benefit amount could reduce long-run child penalties in sample couples from 63 to 46%.

ABSTRACT: Ethnic minorities are about eight percent of China's population. Ethnic minorities have historically had lower earnings than the majority Han ethnic group. The earnings gap has narrowed in recent years. We investigate the contribution to the narrowing of the earnings gap by ethnicity of two developments in transportation: high-speed rail and the national highways. Both developments in transportation are expected to facilitate labor migration and the diffusion of regional economic development. We use individual-level panel data from the China Family Panel Studies for 2010 to 2018 and a sample of working-age individuals. We estimate difference-in-differences models for annual earnings and for the probability of migration. We control for regional differences in economic conditions and their change over time. With our models we investigate how connections of an individual's location to the high-speed rail and the national highway networks influence the effect of ethnicity on earnings and on migration. Migration is a likely mechanism that narrows earning differences by ethnicity. We find that the development of high-speed rail and highways contributed significantly to the narrowing of the ethnicity earnings gap. The effects of both developments in transportation are larger two years after connection to each transportation network relative to the effect after connection for one year. In all cases we document a closing of the ethnicity earnings gap after controlling for the effects of individual and location characteristics. We investigate the influence of regional development policies that were in effect as the development of transportation was taking place. We find that the economic zones regional development policy amplifies the effect of connection to the highway network on earnings. We document that the development of highways resulted in an increased probability of migration by ethnic minorities. The effect is larger two years after the connection to the highway network than one year after the connection. The narrowing of the earnings gap by ethnicity resulting from of the development of high-speed rail and of highways contributes to the reduction in earnings inequality that is an important policy objective. More generally, the development of transportation improves the allocation of labor and economic efficiency

BackgroundGender earnings inequality remains a significant issue in the labor market. In response, women may perceive attractiveness as a potential resource. However, the effectiveness of attractiveness may vary depending on whether it is assessed from a first-person or third-person perspective.MethodsTo explore how attractiveness is perceived in the context of gender earnings inequality, we conducted two studies. Study 1 examined women’s self-perceptions of their attractiveness when faced with gender earnings inequality. Study 2 investigated how third-person observers perceive women’s emphasis on attractiveness in the same context.ResultsStudy 1 revealed that women reported feeling empowered by their attractiveness. However, Study 2 found that third-party observers perceived women’s emphasis on attractiveness as a form of self-dehumanization. Specifically, participants viewed these women as less human, less empowered, more susceptible to sexual objectification in daily life, and less likely to be chosen as friends in the gender earnings inequality context.ConclusionThese findings provide evidence for the perceived empowering function of women’s attractiveness as a response to gender earnings inequality while also highlighting a critical discrepancy between women’s self-perceptions and third-party evaluations of attractiveness.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40359-025-03306-7.

ABSTRACTRising wage inequality since the 1980s is well‐documented, but cyclical dynamics are less explored. This study builds a Kaleckian model analyzing the link between aggregate demand (mediated by employment) and earnings inequality. The model features three classes: capitalists, production, and professional workers. The effect of inequality on demand depends on whether the economy is inequality‐led. Findings show that policies raising lower‐tier workers' income share reduce inequality and boost demand. Fiscal stimulus has ambiguous effects but tends to lower inequality in high‐inequality economies. Employment policies favoring production workers can reduce inequality and increase demand, while their bargaining power strengthens aggregate demand.

The authors investigate whether work-family policies help incorporate women into the labor market, but exacerbate the gender earnings gap and motherhood penalty, especially for mothers and/or tertiary-educated women. The authors use repeated cross-sectional income data from the Luxembourg Income Study database (1999–2019) ( n = 26 countries, 280 country-years, 2.9 million employees) combined with an original collection of indicators on work-family policies, labor market conditions, and gender norms. The authors find that only one work-family policy, long paid parental leave (longer than six months), is associated with a larger gender earnings gap for mothers and tertiary-educated women. The negative relationship between long paid leave and women’s earning percentile is not well explained by selection, full-time status, work hours, experience, occupation, or sector, suggesting discrimination mechanisms. These findings add to the growing evidence that long paid leave specifically, as opposed to work-family policies more generally, cleaves the labor market outcomes of women from men.

Abstract Women's earnings inequality persists, despite policy efforts to reduce discrimination and gender bias. Gender gaps in earnings, however, are a function of hours worked as well as wage rates, and reflect gendered short and long work hour patterns. Within households, how partners exchange time is a crucial driver of hours worked yet this is rarely incorporated into analysis of gender earning gaps. Using a two-stage instrumental variable Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition we model earnings gaps as a function of own and partner hours on and off the job. This enables us to estimate what the gender gap in hours and earnings would look like without a gendered time ‘subsidy’ or ‘borrowing’ in the home. We studied dual-earner households in two countries, Australia and Germany, finding a weekly earnings gap of AUD$536 and €400. This was accompanied by a weekly work hour gap of 12 h in Australia and 13 in Germany. When we accounted for the influence of partner’s hours (paid or unpaid), work hour gaps reduce to 5.1 h in Australian households (58% reduction), and to 6.9 h in German (47% reduction). In effect, women would work 3 to 4 h more each week, and men’s long hours would reduce, narrowing the gender earnings gaps by 43% in Australia and 25% in Germany, if time ‘subsidies’ in the home were eliminated. Our analysis reveals the economic cost to women long work hour cultures impose.

Abstract Measurement error is pervasive in self-reported income and has likely evolved over time. As such, the extent of and trends in income inequality are difficult to discern. While administrative data are a possible solution, they face their own measurement issues and are frequently unavailable. Here, we propose a new method based on stochastic frontier analysis to correct self-reported income for measurement error throughout the distribution. We then apply this method to repeated cross-sectional data in the USA spanning 1960–2023 to assess trends in earnings inequality using ‘error-free’ data on earnings.

Abstract Drawing on a matched survey–administrative dataset tracking careers from 1975 to 2018, we examine the trends in intragenerational earnings mobility in Italy over the past 40 years. We compare earnings trajectories from age 35 to age 45 via a refined version of the ‘income risk decomposition’ proposed by Austin Nichols in 2008, distinguishing between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ earnings mobility from an individual welfare perspective. Our findings reveal that the long‐run trend of increasing cross‐sectional earnings inequality in Italy has been accompanied by widening persistent disparities within the same generation. For all cohorts of workers, at least 80% of inequality is permanent, reaching nearly 90% for the most recent cohort. We also uncover that a substantial share of individuals—between 25% and 39%—do not benefit from stable upward income mobility during a crucial career phase. This issue has worsened over time, with the last ten cohorts experiencing higher income instability (%) and declining upward mobility (%), largely explained by the growing prevalence of atypical employment arrangements. Furthermore, using intragenerational Great Gatsby curves, we show that cohorts exposed to greater earnings inequality also face more persistent differences and reduced earnings growth, especially in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

Job loss and earnings inequality: Distributional effects of formal re-employment in Chile

Abstract Earnings are often top-coded (right-censored) in administrative registers. The censoring threshold in the case of Germany is the limit value for social security contributions, leading to a substantial fraction of censoring: For example, about 12 % of male workers in West Germany are affected, rising to above 30 % for highly educated prime-aged workers. This missing right tail of the earnings distribution constitutes a major problem for researchers studying earnings inequality and top incomes. We overcome this challenge by taking a distributional approach and semi-parametrically modelling the right tail as being Pareto-like. Non-censored earnings survey data matched to administrative records, derived from the SOEP-RV project, let us operate in a laboratory-like setting in which the targets are known. Our approach outperforms alternative imputation methods based on Tobit regressions.

Abstract Using a dynamic panel approach, we provide empirical evidence that negative health shocks significantly reduce earnings. The effect is primarily driven by the participation margin and is concentrated among the less educated and those in poor health. Next, we develop a life-cycle model of labour supply featuring risky and heterogeneous frailty profiles that affect individuals’ productivity, likelihood of access to social insurance, disutility from work, mortality, and medical expenses. Individuals can either work or not work and apply for social security disability insurance (SSDI/SSI). Eliminating health inequality in our model reduces the variance of log lifetime (accumulated) earnings by 28% at age 55. About 60% of this effect is due to the impact of poor health on the probability of obtaining SSDI/SSI benefits. Despite this, we show that eliminating the SSDI/SSI program reduces ex ante welfare.

Many healthcare workers, particularly women of color, are poorly paid, and even among physicians, women and some minoritized groups earn less. Earnings inequalities are generally smaller in the public sector and might be attenuated in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). To compare earnings and earnings disparities among VHA and non-VHA healthcare workers. Cross-sectional analysis of 2018-2022 American Community Survey data. Personnel in hospitals or outpatient care settings (n=591,265; weighted n=12,717,305/year, including n=358,118 VHA employees). Annual earnings overall and for individual occupation groups among VHA and non-VHA personnel; and gender-based or race/ethnicity-based earnings disparities assessed using linear regressions controlled for annual work hours and occupation. Mean earnings were higher in VHA than non-VHA settings; $88,964 (95% CI $86,373-89,754) vs. $81,125 ($80,718-$81,532), and pay inequalities were smaller in the VHA. Earnings in the VHA were lower for a few higher-income occupations, including physicians, whose earnings averaged $255,158 [95% CI 244,733-265,583] in the VHA vs. $286,090 [95% CI 283,613-288,567] in non-VHA settings, a difference (after control for annual work hours) of $26,702 [95% CI 15,691-37,713]. Gender- and race-based disparities were present but smaller in VHA than non-VHA settings. Adjusted for work hours and occupation, the pay disparity between women and men was $12,215 [$9151-$15,279] in the VHA and $26,859 [$25,981-$27,737] in non-VHA settings (p for interaction <0.0001). The adjusted earnings gaps for non-Hispanic Black vs. non-Hispanic white personnel were $5496 [$2384-$8608] vs. $9111 [$7825-$9093] (p for interaction = 0.015). Hispanic personnel earned less than non-Hispanic white personnel in both settings, and disparities were similar. Although physicians earn somewhat less in the VHA than in other settings, overall VHA personnel earn about 10% more on average, overall earnings inequalities are smaller, as are earnings disparities for women and Black personnel.