IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejapp/v14y2022i4p446-79.html

Lifetime Earnings in the United States over Six Decades

Author

Listed:
  • Fatih Guvenen
  • Greg Kaplan
  • Jae Song
  • Justin Weidner

Abstract

Between the 1957 and 1983 labor market entry cohorts, median lifetime earnings declined by 10–19 percent for men and increased by 22–33 percent for women, albeit relative to very low median lifetime earnings for the early cohorts. The difference between newer and older cohorts comes from differences in median earnings at the time of labor market entry. Inequality in lifetime earnings has increased significantly within each gender group, but the closing lifetime gender gap has kept overall lifetime inequality flat. The increase among men is largely attributable to subsequent cohorts entering the labor market with progressively higher levels of inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Fatih Guvenen & Greg Kaplan & Jae Song & Justin Weidner, 2022. "Lifetime Earnings in the United States over Six Decades," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 446-479, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:446-79
    DOI: 10.1257/app.20190489
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20190489
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E138441V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20190489.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20190489.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/app.20190489?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
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aneta Bonikowska & René Morissette & Grant Schellenberg, 2024. "Cumulative earnings of Black, Chinese, South Asian and White individuals born in Canada," Economic and Social Reports 202401100004e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies and Modelling Branch.
    2. Jean-Guillaume Sahuc & Barbara Annicchiarico & Rebecca Clipal, 2025. "Intergenerational Household Finance and the Green Transition Cost," Working Papers hal-05158105, HAL.
    3. Richard Audoly & Rory McGee & Sergio Ocampo & Gonzalo Paz-Pardo, 2024. "The life-cycle dynamics of wealth mobility," IFS Working Papers W24/12, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    4. Karger, Ezra & Wray, Anthony, 2024. "The Black–white lifetime earnings gap," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    5. Battiston, Diego & Maurer, Stephan & Potlogea, Andrei & Rodríguez Mora, José Vicente, 2025. "The short and long run dynamics of the Great Gatsby Curve," Working Papers 49, University of Konstanz, Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality. Perceptions, Participation and Policies".
    6. César Urquizo Ubillús, 2025. "Lifetime Hours Inequality and Occupational Choice," Working Papers 208, Peruvian Economic Association.
    7. Richard Blundell & Christopher R. Bollinger & Charles Hokayem & James P. Ziliak, 2025. "Interpreting Cohort Profiles of Life Cycle Earnings Volatility," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(S1), pages 55-82.
    8. Guvenen, Fatih & Ozkan, Serdar & Madera, Rocio, 2024. "Consumption dynamics and welfare under non-Gaussian earnings risk," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    9. Tomás R. Martinez & Antonio Martins-Neto & Ursula Mello, 2024. "Gender and Top Lifetime Earnings Inequality: Ten New Facts from Brazil," Business and Economics Working Papers 242, Unidade de Negocios e Economia, Insper.
    10. Aurel Mélard & Simon Rabaté & Maxime Tô, 2024. "Hidden redistribution in lifetime earnings: the role of differential mortality," IFS Working Papers W24/44, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    11. Bertrand Garbinti & Cecilia García-Peñalosa & Vladimir Pecheu & Frederique Savignac, 2025. "Explaining the dynamics of the gender gap in lifetime earnings," Working Papers hal-05099831, HAL.
    12. Alexander Bick & Adam Blandin & Richard Rogerson, 2025. "After 40 Years, How Representative Are Labor Market Outcomes in the NLSY79?," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 107(2), pages 1-50, February.
    13. Ozkan, Serdar, 2025. "Income differences and health disparities: Roles of preventive vs. curative medicine," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    14. Robert Kirkby, 2025. "Discretizing earnings dynamics: implications of Gaussian-mixture shocks for life-cycle models," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 76(2), pages 493-519, April.
    15. Bloomfield, Adam & Goodman, Lucas & Rao, Manita & Slavov, Sita, 2025. "State Auto-IRA policies and firm behavior: Lessons from administrative tax data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    16. Alexander Bick & Adam Blandin & Richard Rogerson, 2024. "Hours Worked and Lifetime Earnings Inequality," NBER Working Papers 32997, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D15 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Intertemporal Household Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions

    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:aea:aejapp:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:446-79. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.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.