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Rising Wage Inequality, Real Wage Stagnation and Unions☆

In: Inequality: Causes and Consequences

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  • Stephen Machin

Abstract

Labour markets across the globe have recently been characterized by rising wage inequality, real wage stagnation or both. Most academic work to date considers each in isolation, but the research in this paper attempts to pull them together, arguing that higher wage inequality takes on an added significance if real wages of the typical worker are not growing, and showing that inequality rises and real wage slowdowns have gone hand-in-hand with one another due to wages decoupling from productivity in the United States and United Kingdom. The lack of growth of real wages at the median in the United States is also shown to be linked to the declining influence of trade unions.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Machin, 2016. "Rising Wage Inequality, Real Wage Stagnation and Unions☆," Research in Labor Economics, in: Inequality: Causes and Consequences, volume 43, pages 329-354, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:rleczz:s0147-912120160000043017
    DOI: 10.1108/S0147-912120160000043017
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Sonja Jovicic, 2016. "Wage inequality, skill inequality, and employment: evidence and policy lessons from PIAAC," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-26, December.
    2. Magda, Iga & Gromadzki, Jan & Moriconi, Simone, 2021. "Firms and wage inequality in Central and Eastern Europe," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 499-552.
    3. Richard W. Johnson, 2021. "Policy Options to Reduce the Black‐White Gap in Retirement Security," Journal of Elder Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 1(2), pages 83-112, March.
    4. Michael Ollinger & Friedrich L. Sell, 2017. "What Determines Union Density? A Political Economy Model of the Labor Market with Empirical Evidence in the Context of European Countries," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 10, pages 18-32, November.
    5. Stephen Machin, 2024. "Real wages, inequality and living standards," CEP Election Analysis Papers 066, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    6. Yannick Bormans & Angelos Theodorakopoulos, 2023. "Productivity dispersion, wage dispersion and superstar firms," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(360), pages 1145-1172, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Rising wage inequality; real wage stagnation; unions; I20; I21; I28;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

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