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The Grocery Stores Wage Distribution: A Semi-Parametric Analysis of the Role of Retailing and Labor Market Institutions

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  • John W. Budd
  • Brian P. McCall

Abstract

Using Current Population Survey data supplemented with data from other sources, the authors analyze changes in the wage distribution in the U.S. grocery stores industry between 1984 and 1994. They find that in this industry, unlike in many others, wage inequality did not increase. Instead, real wages declined across the entire distribution, as the net effect of changes in markets, institutions, and technology was to erode the earnings of low-wage, middle-wage, and high-wage workers alike. Although there were drastic increases in grocery store size, hours of operation, and the use of scanners over the sample period, changes in labor market institutions explain most of the overall wage distribution change. Skill-biased technological change does not appear to have had appreciable effects on the wage distribution.

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  • John W. Budd & Brian P. McCall, 2001. "The Grocery Stores Wage Distribution: A Semi-Parametric Analysis of the Role of Retailing and Labor Market Institutions," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 54(2A), pages 484-501, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:54:y:2001:i:2a:p:484-501
    DOI: 10.1177/001979390105400226
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    1. Budd, John W. & McCall, Brian P., 1999. "Decomposing Changes In Retail Food Wage Distributions, 1983-1998: A Semi-Parametric Analysis," Working Papers 14327, University of Minnesota, The Food Industry Center.
    2. Emek Basker, 2012. "Raising the Barcode Scanner: Technology and Productivity in the Retail Sector," NBER Chapters,in: Standards, Patents and Innovations National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Emek Basker, 2012. "Raising the Barcode Scanner: Technology and Productivity in the Retail Sector," NBER Chapters, in: Standards, Patents and Innovations, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Richard J. Butler & Gene Lai, 2023. "Insurance wage-offer disparities by gender: random forest regression and quantile regression evidence from the 2010–2018 American Community Surveys," The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 48(2), pages 192-229, September.
    5. Cho, Seung Jin & Lee, Jun Yeong & Winters, John V., 2020. "COVID-19 Employment Status Impacts on Food Sector Workers," ISU General Staff Papers 202006080700001107, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    6. Richard Volpe, 2014. "Supercenters, Unionized Labor, and Performance in Food Retail," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 325-355, April.
    7. Busso, Matias & DiNardo, John & McCrary, Justin, 2009. "New Evidence on the Finite Sample Properties of Propensity Score Matching and Reweighting Estimators," IZA Discussion Papers 3998, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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