Wage Stagnation and the Decline of Standardized Pay Rates, 1974-1991

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Massenkoff, M. A. X. I. M.; Wilmers, N. A. T. H. A. N.
• 署名单位: United States Department of Defense; United States Navy; Naval Postgraduate School; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20200819
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 474-507
• 关键词: performance pay; management-practices; INEQUALITY; firm; COMPENSATION; incentives; EMPLOYMENT; attitudes; premium; unions

摘要

Using new establishment-by-occupation microdata, we show that the use of discretionary wage setting significantly expanded in the 1970s and 1980s. Increasingly, wages for blue-collar workers were not standardized by job title or seniority but instead subject to managerial discretion. When establishments abandoned standardized pay rates, wages fell, particularly for the lowest-paid workers in a job and for those in establishments that previously paid above market rates. This shift away from standardized pay rates, in context of a broader decline in worker bargaining power, accelerated the decline in real wages experienced by blue-collar workers in the 1980s. (JEL J31, J33, J52, M52, O33)