IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/25746.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

An Explanation of the Increasing Age Premium

Author

Listed:
  • Kapsalis, Constantine

Abstract

The study examines the reason for the significant increase in the ‘age premium’ over the period 1981-94. The age premium refers to the percentage difference in hourly earnings between ‘younger’ (25-34) and ‘older’ (45-54) workers. In 1994, the hourly rate of older males was 32.4% higher than that of younger males. The corresponding age premium among females was 15.5%. Over the period 1981-94, the age premium increased by 15.7 percentage points among males and 19.5 percentage points among females. Evidence based on analysis of the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) public use microdata shows that, while there has been a trend toward non-standard employment, this so far has affected mostly workers under age 25 and cannot explain the rise in the age premium between ages 25-to-34 and 45-to- 54, which is the focus of this study. A more likely explanation identified by the study is the dramatic improvement in the level of education of older workers over the last 14 years. For example, from 1981 to 1994 the percentage of older male workers with grade 10 education or less declined from 41.9% to 19.6%, while the percentage with post-secondary diplomas and degrees increased from 32.1% to 51.7%. The education level of younger male workers also improved over the same period, but the rate of improvement was smaller and, by 1994, there was virtually no difference in the incidence of post-secondary diplomas and degrees between younger and older workers. Similar trends took place among female workers. Shift-share analysis shows that the narrowing of the education gap between older and younger workers explains 44% of the age premium rise among male employees and 50% of the age premium rise among female employees. Thus, this study provides the following likely explanation for a significant part of the increase in the age premium over the period 1981-94: Fourteen years ago younger workers had to compete for jobs with older workers who had more experience but less education. Now, they have to compete with older workers who still have more experience but, on the average, have comparable education to younger workers. As a result, employers are willing to pay a higher premium than in the past for older workers who combine experience with higher education.

Suggested Citation

  • Kapsalis, Constantine, 1998. "An Explanation of the Increasing Age Premium," MPRA Paper 25746, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:25746
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/25746/1/MPRA_paper_25746.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kapsalis, Constantine, 1982. "A new measure of wage discrimination," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 287-293.
    2. Steven J. Davis, 1992. "Cross-Country Patterns of Change in Relative Wages," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1992, Volume 7, pages 239-300, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Jacob Mincer, 1991. "Human Capital, Technology, and the Wage Structure: What Do Time Series Show?," NBER Working Papers 3581, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Kapsalis, Costa, 1998. "An Explanation of the Increasing Age Premium," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 1998112e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    2. Lawrence F. Katz & Gary W. Loveman & David G. Blanchflower, 1995. "A Comparison of Changes in the Structure of Wages in Four OECD Countries," NBER Chapters, in: Differences and Changes in Wage Structures, pages 25-66, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Dennis J. Snower, 1998. "Causes of changing earnings inequality," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 69-133.
    4. Butler, Alison & Dueker, Michael, 1999. "Does foreign innovation affect domestic wage inequality?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 61-89, February.
    5. Olivier Cortes & Sébastien Jean, 1994. "Comment mesurer l'impact du commerce international sur l'emploi ? Une note méthodologique," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 279(1), pages 3-11.
    6. Nahuis, R., 1997. "On Globalisation, Trade and Wages," Research Memorandum 747, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Hibbs, Douglas A, Jr, 2000. "Bread and Peace Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 104(1-2), pages 149-180, July.
    8. Lawrence F. Katz, 1994. "Active labor market policies to expand employment and opportunity," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, issue Jan, pages 239-322.
    9. Cristiano Perugini & Gaetano Martino, 2008. "Income Inequality Within European Regions: Determinants And Effects On Growth," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 54(3), pages 373-406, September.
    10. Attanasio, Orazio & Davis, Steven J, 1996. "Relative Wage Movements and the Distribution of Consumption," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(6), pages 1227-1262, December.
    11. Männasoo, Kadri, 2022. "Working hours and gender wage differentials: Evidence from the American Working Conditions Survey," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    12. Per-Anders Edin & Bertil Holmlund, 1995. "The Swedish Wage Structure: The Rise and Fall of Solidarity Wage Policy?," NBER Chapters, in: Differences and Changes in Wage Structures, pages 307-344, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Diane J. Macunovich, 1999. "The fortunes of one's birth: Relative cohort size and the youth labor market in the United States," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 12(2), pages 215-272.
    14. Joseph Francois & Douglas R. Nelson, 2000. "Victims of Progress: Economic Integration, Specialization, and Wages for Unskilled Labor," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 00-065/2, Tinbergen Institute.
    15. Lindquist, Matthew J., 2005. "The welfare costs of union wage compression," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 639-658, April.
    16. Snower, Dennis J., 1997. "Challenges to social cohesion and approaches to policy reform," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 1953, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    17. Cecilia Garcia-Penalosa & Eve Caroli & Philippe Aghion, 1999. "Inequality and Economic Growth: The Perspective of the New Growth Theories," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1615-1660, December.
    18. Henrekson, Magnus & Rosenberg, Nathan, 2000. "Incentives for Academic Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance: Sweden and the United States," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 362, Stockholm School of Economics.
    19. Ann P. Bartel & Nachum Sicherman, 1999. "Technological Change and Wages: An Interindustry Analysis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(2), pages 285-325, April.
    20. Alison Butler & Michael J. Dueker, 1994. "Product cycles, innovation and relative wages in European countries," Working Papers 1994-022, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    wage inequality; education and wages; age premium;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

    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:pra:mprapa:25746. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.