Wage Structure Research Articles

Dilemmas relating to mode estimation of wages and salaries

The mode of wages and salaries is an important indicator describing their distribution; however, due to the strong asymmetry of the distribution of this feature in Poland, mode estimation is not a standard procedure in the analysis of the structure of wages and salaries. The aim of the article is to discuss selected methods of estimating the mode and to compare the mode estimation results obtained by means of various methods. The research is based on data on individual gross wages and salaries registered in October 2018 in Poland. The data came from a survey of the structure of wages and salaries conducted by Statistics Poland. In the case of the standard method based on the interpolation formula and histogram, the mode estimate is sensitive to the assumed span of intervals in the frequency table and the beginning of the first interval. Reducing the span of the intervals causes the mode to reach the value of the minimum wage. The application of advanced methods, including those using a kernel estimator, leads to significantly different estimates of the mode depending on the method used (the dispersion reaches the value of approximately PLN 800). Additionally, the analysis of the obtained results gives grounds to considering a thesis that wage and salary distribution is a mixture of the following distributions: discrete (for the minimum wage) and continuous (for wages and salaries above the minimum wage), and is characterised by cyclicality (in Poland, more contracts offer remunerations which are a multiple of PLN 50 or PLN 100 than remunerations for other amounts).

Returns to Education in Pakistan

There is an extensive empirical literature on returns to education that focuses both on developed and developing countries. Available literatures in developing countries compare the returns to academic education and vocational education [Nasir and Nazil (2000)], or seek to identify the impact of completing a given schooling cycle on earnings [Appleton (2001)]. The aim of this study is to contribute the literature by conducting a systematic analysis on returns to education and education inequality in Pakistan. In particular it asks to what extent inequality for different level of education vary across the wage distribution. In order to address simultaneously the two issue of return to education and education inequality, study adopt a quantile regression framework. A characteristic of the wage and salary structure of most countries is that people with more education tend to receive higher remuneration than those with less [Colclough (1982)]. To do so, the paper has used data drawn from Labour Force Surveys, conducted by Government of Pakistan for the time period between 1990 and 2003, which contains eight different surveys, using methodology developed by Agrist, et al. (2006), where weighted least squares interpretation of Quantile Regression is used to derive an omitted variables bias formula and a partial quantile regression concept, similar to the relationship between partial regression and OLS. Estimation uses personal and household characteristics, occupational and employment characteristics in order to assess the education inequality. Empirical estimates indicate that education inequality is much higher for the middle level educates compare to educate that has less education or high level education and qualifications. The education level coefficients decrease when different sets of exogenous variables are introduced in the estimation equation. Analysis also suggests the existence of the education inequality across different areas and regions and over the time it has increased.

Trends in College–High School Wage Differentials in China: The Role of Cohort-Specific Labor Supply Shift

The wage gap between 4-year college (BA) and high school (HS) graduates narrows down among young workers from 2002 to 2009 in urban China, despite steadily increasing BA–HS wage gaps for older workers during the same time. This period corresponds to the labor market entry of a radically increasing number of college-educated labor stimulated by China’s higher education expansion program initiated in 1999. This study examines how cohort-specific relative supply of college-educated labor affects the cohort-specific college wage premiums and the overall BA–HS wage gaps in the labor market. Incorporating an aggregate labor supply model with imperfect substitution across labor with the same education level but in different age groups, changes in age-group-specific BA–HS wage gaps over time are decomposed into changes in aggregate and age-group-specific relative labor supply and demand factors. Findings suggest that the substantially expanded opportunities to attend college contribute to the falling BA–HS income inequality among young post-expansion cohorts: a 1-percent increase in the relative supply of BA-educated workers within one’s own cohorts depresses cohort-specific BA–HS wage gap by 0.2%. Policies that substantially boost educational attainment for certain cohorts could reduce education-related wage gaps for these cohorts and have spillover effects to the wage structure in the labor market.

From equality to polarization: Changes in urban China’s gender earnings gap from 1988 to 2016

This paper studies the evolution of urban China’s gender earnings gap from 1988 to 2016. We first document that an upward trend in gender inequality started to reverse after 2007 at the median and in the upper part of the earnings distribution but only for workers in the state–owned enterprises (SOEs). Women in the private sector at the top of the earnings distribution did not start to catch up with their male counterparts until 2012. The gender earnings gap at the low end of the distribution, meanwhile, was stuck at a high level after the mid–1990s. Polarization emerges both within the earnings distribution and across ownership types. Following Bayer and Charles (2018), we decompose the change in the gender earnings gap across the whole earnings’ distribution and find that a change in the wage structure dominantly drives the trend in gender inequality. Gender–specific factors, such as discrimination, play a minor role.

Gender-Specific Wage Structure and the Gender Wage Gap in the U.S. Labor Market

This paper challenges the predominant conceptualization of the wage structure as gender-neutral, emphasizing the contribution that this makes to the gender wage gap. Unlike most decomposition analyses, which concentrated on gender differences in productivity-enhancing characteristics (the ‘explained’ portion), we concentrate on the ‘wage structure’ (the ‘unexplained’ portion), which can be defined as the market returns to productivity-enhancing characteristics. These returns are commonly considered a reflection of non-gendered economic forces of supply and demand, and gender differences in these returns are attributed to market failure or measurement error. Using PSID data on working-age employees from 1980 to 2010, we examine gender differences in returns to education and work experience in the U.S. labor market. Based on a threefold decomposition, we estimate the contribution of these differences to the overall pay gap. The results show that men’s returns to education and work experience are higher than women’s; and that in contrast to the well-documented trend of narrowing gender gaps in skills and earnings, the gaps in returns increase over time in men’s favor. Furthermore, the existing gender differences in returns to skills explain a much larger proportion of the gender wage gap than differences in levels of education and experience between men and women. The paper discusses the mechanisms underlying these findings.

Estimating disguised unemployment in major middle-income countries by means of non-linear input–output analysis, 2000–2014

According to the disguised-unemployment hypothesis, significant wage differences between sectors in less-developed countries result from segmented labour markets and overcrowding of the flexible market segment. So stated, this hypothesis implies a way to measure non-open unemployment: by the amount of labour that must be withdrawn from the market for relative wages to change. Indeed, it is possible to undertake the exercise of comparing the actual employment of a country with a simulated ‘non-dualistic’ employment by means of a non-linear input-output model and taking the US wage structure as a benchmark. This simulation experiment was carried out for seven middle-income countries (Brazil, China, Indonesia, India, Russia, Mexico, and Turkey) using data from the 2016 Release of the World Input–Output Database. The results of the study are consistent with the disguised-unemployment hypothesis, as well as with related literature.

Pooled OLS and Fixed Effect Estimation of Wage Structure and Differential in Handloom Sector: Choosing the Better Method

This study analyzed the wage structures and differentials of weavers in the handloom sector taking pooled Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and fixed effect model. Within Assam, India, primary data was collected from Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD), both rural and urban areas in the years 2018 and 2021. The result estimated by using pooled OLS shows production, productivity, education, experience, training, and distance of weavers from weaving residence to have a positive impact on the wages of weavers. Age, distance of weaving, and location of weaving were found to have a negative impact on wages. However, the result estimated using panel least square (fixed effect) showed age and location of weaving to have a negative impact on wages. The study also chose the better method among pooled OLS and fixed effect model. Since the probability value the Wald test statistic is less than 0.05, the fixed-effect model is preferred to Pooled OLS.

Going Nordic—Can the Nordic model tackle grand challenges and be a beacon to follow?

AbstractNordic countries are known for having extensive welfare services, a highly compressed wage structure owing to strong social partners, as well as effective regulation and governance in public administration. Various typologies capture aspects of the institutional features of families of nations across various policy areas, showing that there is a specific Nordic variant of political economy. While there is an extensive literature focusing on socio‐economic outcomes in the Nordic countries, there is less scholarly focus on the linkages between the regulatory processes, and their policy output, in response to various challenges. This volume examines how exogenous challenges (market liberalization promoted by EU integration and the gig economy, as well as the COVID‐19 pandemic) and endogenous challenges in the welfare state (regulation of child‐care quality and retirement ages) are tackled in a selection of Nordic countries. After a bibliometric analysis on the state of the literature, features of the Nordic model are presented. Then, the contributions of the articles to the special issue are summarized, after which lessons for other models of political economy are pinpointed. We find that although there is high variation within the Nordics in the studies of the special issue, there is a trend whereby, over time, a broader range of actors involved in the policy and regulatory process. Although not perfect, challenges are solved incrementally and often at an early stage. In other words, the Nordic regulatory model is highly adaptable to different challenges. Thus, the Nordic model does present crucial lessons for other types of political economy.

Walmart hikes technician wages in a bid to hire 5,000 this year

Walmart hikes technician wages in a bid to hire 5,000 this year

The wage structure and gap between public and private sectors: an empirical study in urban China

The idea that the wage gap (W.G.) between the public sector (P.U.S.) and private sectors (P.R.S.) has widened is a point of contention among scholars, but to date, there has been no systematic discussion of changes in the W.G. and their causes in China. This article combines data from China’s Urban Household Survey (U.H.S.) for 2004, 2008 and 2013 to examine changes in between-sector W.G.s and identify the causal factors by wage decomposition methods. Using ordinary least squares and a Heckman sample selection model, this study finds that public-sector workers consistently earn more than private-sector workers and that the W.G. is expanding, especially in upstream industries where state-owned enterprises (S.O.E.s) have monopoly status. In addition, the Oaxaca–Blinder (O.B.) decomposition method is adopted to reveal that the characteristic effect is the main cause of the W.G. Further, the regression and decomposition of the recentered influence function show that the effect of characteristics and coefficient effects differ across wage quantiles. This article indicates that the intersectoral W.G. in China is widening mainly as a result of differences in labour endowments and provides evidence to support government decision-making.

Managing Workforce in Pertamina Upstream on Industrial Relation Perspective Post Go-Live Pertamina Sub-holding Upstream

Transformation in Pertamina Holding and Sub-holding bring new fresh air to the evolution of Pertamina. The transformation process carried out by Pertamina Sub-holding Upstream is very challenging because the subsidiaries in the upstream environment are very diverse. After the implementation of changes to the Pertamina Sub-holding upstream, which took place on April 1, 2022, various issues surfaced. One of them is the employment relationship status transferred to another company in the upstream environment, in which provisions are used, the wage structure, and others. Based on this, several analyzes were carried out using the VMOST, GAP, VFT, and other models to find the dominant factors that must be considered in making decisions and alternatives that can be a solution in managing human resources after Go-Live SHU. The results of this study found the best solution that can be taken by the company using the AHP decision tree. This decision-making is done by filling out a questionnaire to determine which dominant factor is the basis for selecting the best alternative chosen by the company so that the current problems or GAPs can be resolved effectively and efficiently.

Wage inequality in the developing world: Evidence from Latin America

AbstractWe study the dynamics of wage inequality in Latin America in the past two decades. We find a consistent trend reversal in wage inequality in the region since the early 2000s: wage inequality fell across all countries in a way not predicted by the trends each country had experienced in the 1990s. The decline in wage inequality is explained by a disproportional expansion in the real hourly wage among low‐paid workers, reducing both lower and upper tail inequality. About 40% of the observed reduction in wage variance was a response to the more equal wage structure, while the rest derived from a reduction in wage dispersion among workers with similar observable traits. The equalization of the wage structure in the 2000s is correlated with a reduction in the wage premium across education, experience, and place of residence. The reduction in the gender gap contributed, to a lesser extent, to the trend reversal.

Overview of dental assistants in Taiwan from 2009 to 2021

Background/purposeThe development of dental assistants in Taiwan has been over a century. This study explored mainly the profile of dental assistants and the occupation survey about them in Taiwan from 2009 to 2021.Materials and methodsThis study used the documentary analysis and secondary data analysis to survey mainly the changes of manpower of dental assistants in Taiwan from 2009 to 2021, and the association of their wages with economic indicators.ResultsAccording to occupation survey from government, the number of dental assistants increased from 4315 in 2009–7909 in 2021. When estimated based on the data of the United States showing 1.86 dental assistants per dentist, the estimated number of dental assistants increased from 21,113 in 2009 to 28,698 in 2020. Although the mean monthly wage of dental assistants increased from 22,127 NT dollars in 2009 to 26,795 NT dollars in 2021, the proportion of the mean annual wage of dental assistants to the gross domestic product per capita decreased from 47.43% in 2009 to 34.78% in 2021. Moreover, the proportion of the mean monthly wage of dental assistants to the basic monthly wage of labor decreased from 128.05% in 2009 to 111.65% in 2021.ConclusionIn Taiwan, although the manpower and work content of dental assistants are important for dentists, they usually work with a low wage from 2009 to 2021. It is imperative to continue to promote the certification system for dental assistants to improve the professionalism and the wage structure of this occupation.

Sticky Floors and Glass Ceilings: Gender Wage Gap in Egypt

ABSTRACT The fact that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has the lowest labor force participation rate for women in the world has been extensively studied, but discrimination in pay against working women has received considerably less attention. Using recently available datasets, this study examines the distribution of wages (inequality) across men and women employed in the public versus the private sector in Egypt. The analysis shows that because working women tend to be more educated than working men, the gender wage gap would have been larger if women had the same endowments. Quantile regressions and recentered influence functions show that the gender wage gap is wide at the top of the distribution, primarily in the public sector, which is a sign of a glass ceiling. The gap is also wider at the bottom of the wage distribution in the private sector, a sign of sticky floors. HIGHLIGHTS The Egyptian public sector has a relatively equitable gender wage structure, except for the top jobs. The gender wage gap is much larger in Egypt’s private sector for the low paid. Since lower-educated women often do not work, the gender pay discrimination in Egypt might be even greater than observed. Policy interventions are needed to prepare women for leadership positions and to increase their promotion opportunities.

Edward P. Lazear Prize

Previous articleNext article FreeEdward P. Lazear PrizePDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreJohn M. Abowd is the recipient of the 2022 Edward P. Lazear Prize for excellence in research, exemplary service to the field, and contributions to civil society. John Abowd is the Edmund Ezra Day Professor Emeritus of Economics, Statistics, and Data Science at Cornell University and associate director for research and methodology and chief scientist at the US Census Bureau. He is also affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST; France), the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA; Germany), and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB; Germany). He is a fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Statistical Association, and, of course, the Society of Labor Economists (SOLE). John received an AB in economics from Notre Dame and a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago. He was on the faculty of the Princeton Department of Economics and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, now the Booth School of Business, before moving to Cornell in 1987.John was chosen as the inaugural winner of the Lazear Prize because of his clear excellence in all three dimensions—research, service to the field, and public service. John has made deep research contributions in several areas. John’s early work included influential papers on unions, such as a study of “queuing” for union jobs (Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 1982), with Henry Farber, and a paper on how product market competition affects union wages (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1993), with Thomas Lemieux. In joint work with David Card (Econometrica, 1989), John carefully described the structure and statistical properties of wages and hours in the United States. While this and other work would have been sufficient to cement John’s reputation as a leading labor economist, his seminal paper on worker and firm effects on wages (Econometrica, 1999), with Francis Kramarz and David Margolis, revolutionized the use of matched employer-employee data sets. It presaged how these data sets would come to be used in a large fraction of labor economics research ever since.John’s service to the field of labor economics includes consistent contributions to SOLE, where he served as president. John’s efforts at the Census Bureau, starting in 1998, have included leading efforts to create data sets (and access to those data sets), such as the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD), that have been key to innumerable research advances in labor economics research. In addition, John has produced a large set of PhD students who are carrying his work forward in labor economics research and public goods provision of useful data.Finally, John’s work at the Census Bureau has also led to important public policy advances. His work on census data sets is valuable across the social sciences. More recently, John and a few other census leaders worked tirelessly to ensure that the 2020 decennial census was a success despite the onset of a pandemic and vigorous attempts to politicize the effort.John’s contributions in all three dimensions of the Lazear Prize criteria have been substantial and will benefit labor economists, as well as broader society, for decades to come. He is an ideal choice for the inaugural Lazear Prize. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Labor Economics Volume 40, Number 3July 2022 Published for the Society of Labor Economists, Economics Research Center/ NORC Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/721001 Views: 612Total views on this site © 2022 The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Improving the regulatory framework of the regional remuneration system in area of healthcare

Subject. Organisational and regulatory peculiarities of the regional system of remuneration of healthcare workers in state medical organisations. Purpose. This study aims to analyse the current system of remuneration of healthcare workers of state healthcare institutions in the Voronezh Region, to identify current issues, and to determine the main paths for improving the sectoral remuneration system. Method. The study used data from statistical reports related to the structure and composition of wages in 2019-2020 and other financial indicators of the healthcare system in the Voronezh Region. The methods of the investigation included analysis, observation, generalisation, comparison, grouping, classification, etc. Results. A method for calculating the amount of guaranteed payments was offered, the earlier and current remuneration systems were compared. The analysis of wage systems in medical organisations subordinate to the Department of Health of the Voronezh Region confirmed the need to increase the basic salary and reimbursements in order to improve the welfare of healthcare workers, which contributes to improving the quality and accessibility of medical care. Conclusions. The hypothesis was confirmed that it is necessary to develop a concept and methodological recommendations for the formation of a sectoral remuneration system containing information on the amount of salaries, the key approaches to determining reimbursements and incentive payments and their ratio in order to decrease the differentiation between healthcare workers’ salaries in the region and to increase the appeal of the profession and to motivate employees to work more efficiently.

Correlationship between job and life satisfaction: A research on occupational characteristics

The study aims to conduct relationship analysis to explain the perceptions of job and life satisfaction with occupational information of tour guides. Tour guides are the first people tourists encounter when they go to a destination. Considering the service offered in forming the perception, image and trust idea about the destination, it is crucial to determine whether tour guides are satisfied with their job and life. Tour guides working in Turkey, who lead about 51 million visitors annually, constitute the research universe. 747 questionnaires were distributed, but only 408 of the collected data were considered valid. Based on the data obtained, a significant and positive relationship was found between the participants’ job and life satisfaction levels. As job satisfaction increases, life satisfaction increases, and as life satisfaction increases, job satisfaction increases as well. A significant and positive relationship was also identified between job satisfaction sub-dimensions such as management, career, wage and job structure, and life satisfaction. However, no significant relationship was found between colleagues and life satisfaction.

Promotion Analysis of General Staff at a Private University in Malaysia

This study is aimed to investigate the perspectives of general staff at a private university pertinent to the increment of compensation and the current circumstances of their salaries. This study employed a survey-based approach with questionnaires to collect data concerning promotions among general university staff at a private university in the Klang Valley. The analysis revealed that 68.9 per cent, or 102 general staff, have not yet been promoted, while 36.5 per cent, or 54 general staff employees, have attained their maximum wages. The results indicated that the promotion of staff to a certain level of position in the organisation is deemed essential. Thus, this study suggests that an organisation, specifically a private university, must re-examine promotion and wage structures. The human resource department should apply the most appropriate improvement strategies aligned with its vision and mission. This is necessary to combat the destructive perceptions of employees toward the organisation.

Technical change and wage premiums amongst skilled labour: Evidence from the economic transition

I present reduced-form and structural evidence that the reorganization of the Russian economy in the post-transitional period increased the demand on law and business graduates. This demand shock provides a novel unified explanation of the Russian wage structure for 1985–2015. I then show that this shock is a common feature of all transitional economies, and it contributed to the transformational recession. The demand behaviour is identified with a new skill-biased technical change model of demand for skills with three production inputs (high school graduates and bachelor-level educations with two majors), showing that a technology shift that favours a particular skill might emerge within the skilled group rather than between skilled and unskilled. This is relevant because similar shifts (e.g., data scientists vs. liberal arts) emerge today in the frontier economies that adopt new general-purpose technologies (e.g., machine learning). Thus, this paper informs policymakers today on tools to counteract a potential drop in economic equality and performance that result from this adoption. Lastly, because of similarities between the mechanics of the transition and the 2022 sanctions to discourage Russia's war effort, my results highlight the importance of additional sanctions against the education system to prevent the regime's structural adaptation and preservation.

“The knife needs the intention of the heart” The construction of ethnic and moral boundaries in Israeli slaughterhouses

This study examines aspects of ethnic, religious, and moral boundary work among Jewish-Israeli kosher slaughterers based, on 35 in-depth interviews, four ethnographic observations, informal conversations, and other secondary sources such as video footage of the slaughter sites gathered between 2014 and 2019. In Israel, the self-proclaimed sovereign homeland of the Jewish people, being Jewish means being part of the political, ethnic, and religious hegemony. While being stigmatized for doing dirty work, the Jewish slaughterers’ workplace setting groups them with menial laborers from a minority ethnic group, both physically and organizationally. The stigma associated with animal killing in Israel encourages the slaughterers to distinguish themselves from other workers by engaging in boundary work. Within the workplace setting, this boundary work occurs around various aspects of intersecting identities: racio-ethnic, national, religious, and professional. Furthermore, this boundary work is fueled by various organizational mechanisms such as the slaughter site’s spatial architecture, differential wage structure, and the use of tools and technologies. While these workplace conditions are determined by the employers, they are constantly restructured and reinforced by the slaughterers to assert their moral superiority vis-a-vis other workers. While exploring these organizational mechanisms, I conceptualize the Jewish slaughter knife as a boundary-maintaining object. I claim that the slaughterers constantly leverage these material, symbolic, and discursive resources to morally segregate the two workers’ groups and the morally tainted aspects of slaughter, such as violence and cruelty, to the ‘Arab’ others. Meanwhile, the prevailing Jew–Arab tensions and the popular symbolic representation of the Arabs ensures that these behaviors are treated as an inherent racio-ethnic trait, thereby reinforcing these boundaries.