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Which Ladder to Climb? Wages of Workers by Job, Plant, and Education

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  • Christian Bayer
  • Moritz Kuhn

Abstract

Wages grow but also become more unequal as workers age. Using German administrative data, we largely attribute both life-cycle facts to one driving force: some workers progress in hierarchy to jobs with more responsibility, complexity, and independence. In short, they climb the career ladder. Climbing the career ladder explains 50% of wage growth and virtually all of rising wage dispersion. The increasing gender wage gap by age parallels a rising hierarchy gap. Our findings suggest that wage dynamics are shaped by the organization of production, which itself likely depends on technology, the skill set of the workforce, and labor market institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Bayer & Moritz Kuhn, 2018. "Which Ladder to Climb? Wages of Workers by Job, Plant, and Education," Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute Working Papers 15, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedmoi:0015
    DOI: 10.21034/iwp.15
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    Cited by:

    1. Bachmann, Rüdiger & Bayer, Christian & Stüber, Heiko & Wellschmied, Felix, 2022. "Monopsony Makes Firms Not Only Small but Also Unproductive: Why East Germany Has Not Converged," IZA Discussion Papers 15293, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Leena Rudanko, 2018. "Firm Wages in a Frictional Labor Market," 2018 Meeting Papers 1154, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    3. Moritz Kuhn & Gašper Ploj, 2020. "Job Stability, Earnings Dynamics, and Life-Cycle Savings," CESifo Working Paper Series 8710, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Human capital; Life-cycle wage growth; Wage inequality; Careers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D33 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Factor Income Distribution
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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