IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/oec/ecoaaa/1225-en.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Financial sector pay and labour income inequality: Evidence from Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Oliver Denk

    (OECD)

Abstract

Public questioning about the role of finance has been fuelled by the perception that financial sector pay is an important factor behind high economic inequalities. This paper is the first to provide a comprehensive look at the level of earnings in finance and the implications for labour income inequality for European countries. Financial sector workers are shown to make up 19% among the top 1% earners, although the overall employment share of finance is only 4%. Nonetheless, the relatively small size of the sector limits the contribution that financial sector pay has on income inequality to a small, but noticeable amount. Simulations indicate that most of this contribution is explained by financial institutions paying salaries and bonuses which are above what employees with similar profiles get in other sectors. Estimations that allow for heterogeneity across workers reveal that this wage premium is more than twice as high for financial sector workers at the top of the distribution than at the bottom. The labour market in finance displays other symptoms of imperfection, with, for example, male financial sector workers earning a large wage premium over female financial sector workers, again especially at the top. Rémunérations du secteur financier et inégalités des revenus du travail : Données d'observation en Europe Les interrogations dans l’opinion sur le rôle de la finance se sont nourries du sentiment que les rémunérations dans ce secteur sont un élément important des fortes inégalités économiques. Ce document est le premier à donner une vue d’ensemble du niveau des rémunérations dans la finance et de leurs implications pour les inégalités des revenus du travail dans les pays européens. Il s’avère que les travailleurs du secteur financier constituent 19 % des 1 % de salariés les mieux rémunérés, alors que la part de ce secteur dans l’emploi total n’est que de 4 %. Néanmoins, sa taille relativement modeste fait que son impact sur les inégalités de revenu est réduit, mais visible. Les simulations réalisées montrent que cet impact s’explique essentiellement par les rémunérations et les primes versées par les établissements financiers, supérieures à celles des salariés au profil comparable des autres secteurs. Des estimations qui tiennent compte de l’hétérogénéité entre les travailleurs montrent que cet avantage de salaire du secteur financier est, en haut de la distribution, deux fois plus élevé qu’en bas. Le marché du travail dans la finance révèle d’autres signes d’imperfection, notamment le fait que les travailleurs masculins y bénéficient d’un avantage de salaire conséquent par rapport à leurs homologues femmes, là encore tout particulièrement en haut de la distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Oliver Denk, 2015. "Financial sector pay and labour income inequality: Evidence from Europe," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1225, OECD Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1225-en
    DOI: 10.1787/5js04v5wjw9p-en
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1787/5js04v5wjw9p-en
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1787/5js04v5wjw9p-en?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anthony B. Atkinson & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2011. "Top Incomes in the Long Run of History," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-71, March.
    2. Philip Du Caju & Gábor Kátay & Ana Lamo & Daphne Nicolitsas & Steven Poelhekke, 2010. "Inter-Industry Wage Differentials In EU Countries: What Do Cross-Country Time Varying Data Add to the Picture?," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 8(2-3), pages 478-486, 04-05.
    3. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Brian Bell & John Reenen, 2014. "Bankers and Their Bonuses," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(574), pages 1-21, February.
    5. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1, May.
    6. Josh Bivens & Lawrence Mishel, 2013. "The Pay of Corporate Executives and Financial Professionals as Evidence of Rents in Top 1 Percent Incomes," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(3), pages 57-78, Summer.
    7. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2000. "Gender Differences in Pay," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 75-99, Fall.
    8. Steven N. Kaplan & Joshua Rauh, 2010. "Wall Street and Main Street: What Contributes to the Rise in the Highest Incomes?," NBER Chapters, in: Corporate Governance, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Krueger, Alan B & Summers, Lawrence H, 1988. "Efficiency Wages and the Inter-industry Wage Structure," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(2), pages 259-293, March.
    10. Oliver Denk & Boris Cournède, 2015. "Finance and income inequality in OECD countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1224, OECD Publishing.
    11. Boris Cournède & Oliver Denk & Peter Hoeller, 2015. "Finance and Inclusive Growth," OECD Economic Policy Papers 14, OECD Publishing.
    12. Oliver Denk & Sebastian Schich & Boris Cournède, 2015. "Why implicit bank debt guarantees matter: Some empirical evidence," OECD Journal: Financial Market Trends, OECD Publishing, vol. 2014(2), pages 63-88.
    13. Michele Pellizzari & Anne Fichen, 2013. "A New Measure of Skills Mismatch: Theory and Evidence from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC)," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 153, OECD Publishing.
    14. Kevin Purse, 2004. "Work-related fatality risks and neoclassical compensating wage differentials," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 28(4), pages 597-617, July.
    15. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Magda, Iga & Rycx, François & Tojerow, Ilan & Valsamis, Daphné, 2008. "Wage Differentials across Sectors in Europe: An East-West Comparison," IZA Discussion Papers 3830, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Thomas Philippon & Ariell Reshef, 2012. "Wages and Human Capital in the U.S. Finance Industry: 1909--2006," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(4), pages 1551-1609.
    18. Stefan Thewissen & Chen Wang & Olaf van Vliet, 2013. "Sectoral trends in earnings inequality and employment International trade, skill-biased technological change, or labour market institutions?," LIS Working papers 595, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    19. Iga Magda & François Rycx & Ilan Tojerow & Daphné Valsamis, 2011. "Wage differentials across sectors in Europe," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 19(4), pages 749-769, October.
    20. Oliver Denk & Alexandre Cazenave-Lacroutz, 2015. "Household finance and income inequality in the euro area," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1226, OECD Publishing.
    21. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Melissa S. Kearney, 2008. "Trends in U.S. Wage Inequality: Revising the Revisionists," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(2), pages 300-323, May.
    22. repec:ulb:ulbeco:2013/245696 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Michael Förster & Ana Llena-Nozal & Vahé Nafilyan, 2014. "Trends in Top Incomes and their Taxation in OECD Countries," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 159, OECD Publishing.
    24. Alan Carruth & William Collier & Andy Dickerson, 2004. "Inter‐industry Wage Differences and Individual Heterogeneity," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 66(5), pages 811-846, December.
    25. Martins, Pedro S., 2004. "Industry wage premia: evidence from the wage distribution," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 157-163, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Philip Du Caju & François Rycx & Ilan Tojerow, 2011. "Inter‐Industry Wage Differentials: How Much Does Rent Sharing Matter?," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 79(4), pages 691-717, July.
    2. W. D. McCausland & F. Summerfield & I. Theodossiou, 2020. "The Effect of Industry-Level Aggregate Demand on Earnings: Evidence from the US," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 102-127, June.
    3. Philip Du Caju & Gábor Kátay & Ana Lamo & Daphne Nicolitsas & Steven Poelhekke, 2010. "Inter-Industry Wage Differentials In EU Countries: What Do Cross-Country Time Varying Data Add to the Picture?," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 8(2-3), pages 478-486, 04-05.
    4. Evangelia Papapetrou & Pinelopi Tsalaporta, 2016. "Inter-industry wage differentials in Greece: rent-sharing and unobserved heterogeneity hypotheses," Working Papers 213, Bank of Greece.
    5. Jimeno, Juan F. & Lamo, Ana & Christopoulou, Rebekka, 2010. "Changes in the wage structure in EU countries," Working Paper Series 1199, European Central Bank.
    6. Boris Cournède & Oliver Denk & Peter Hoeller, 2015. "Finance and Inclusive Growth," OECD Economic Policy Papers 14, OECD Publishing.
    7. Philip Du Caju & François Rycx & Ilan Tojerow, 2012. "Wage structure effects of international trade in a small open economy: the case of Belgium," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 148(2), pages 297-331, June.
    8. Jens Holscher & Cristiano Perugini & Fabrizio Pompei, 2011. "Wage inequality, labour market flexibility and duality in Eastern and Western Europe," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 271-310.
    9. Theodore Koutmeridis, 2013. "The Market for "Rough Diamonds": Information, Finance and Wage Inequality," CDMA Working Paper Series 201307, Centre for Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis, revised 14 Oct 2013.
    10. Robert Plasman & François Rycx & Ilan Tojerow, 2007. "Wage differentials in Belgium: the role of worker and employer characteristics," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 50(1), pages 11-40.
    11. Du Caju, Philip & Rycx, François & Tojerow, Ilan, 2008. "Rent-Sharing and the Cyclicality of Wage Differentials," IZA Discussion Papers 3844, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Tinh Doan & Tran Quang Tuyen & Hien Nguyen, 2018. "Local Competitiveness and Labour Market Returns in a Transition Economy: Evidence from Vietnam," Working Papers in Economics 18/06, University of Waikato.
    13. Amir Borges Ferreira Neto & Ricardo Da Silva Fregugli, 2014. "How Much Does Talent Matter? Evidences From The Brazilian Formal Cultural Industry," Anais do XLI Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 41st Brazilian Economics Meeting] 233, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    14. Carrieri, Vincenzo & Principe, Francesco & Raitano, Michele, 2017. "What makes you "super-rich"? New evidence from an analysis of football players' earnings," Ruhr Economic Papers 681, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    15. Edo, Anthony & Toubal, Farid, 2017. "Immigration and the gender wage gap," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 196-214.
    16. Oliver Denk, 2015. "Who are the top 1% earners in Europe?," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1274, OECD Publishing.
    17. Erling Barth & Alex Bryson & James C. Davis & Richard Freeman, 2016. "It's Where You Work: Increases in the Dispersion of Earnings across Establishments and Individuals in the United States," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(S2), pages 67-97.
    18. Evangelia Papapetrou & Pinelopi Tsalaporta, 2017. "Inter-Industry Wage Differentials in Greece: Evidence from Quantile Regression Analysis," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 51-67, January.
    19. W. Bentley MacLeod & Miguel Urquiola, 2018. "Is Education Consumption or Investment? Implications for the Effect of School Competition," NBER Working Papers 25117, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Oliver Denk & Sebastian Schich & Boris Cournède, 2015. "Why implicit bank debt guarantees matter: Some empirical evidence," OECD Journal: Financial Market Trends, OECD Publishing, vol. 2014(2), pages 63-88.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    avantage salarial; coefficient de Gini; earnings; European Union; finance; finance; gender inequality; Gini coefficient; income inequality; Inégalités de genre; inégalités de revenu; surqualification; Union européenne; wage differential; Wage premium;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1225-en. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/edoecfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.