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Recent Changes in British Wage Inequality: Evidence from Large Firms and Occupations

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  • Daniel Schaefer
  • Carl Singleton

Abstract

Using a linked employer–employee dataset covering large firms, we present new evidence on British wage inequality trends over the past two decades. Differences between firms in the average wages they paid did not drive these trends. Between 1996 and 2005, greater wage variance within firms accounted for 86% of the total increase in wage variance among employees. In the following decade, wage inequality between firms continued to increase, whereas overall wage dispersion decreased. Approximately all the contribution to inequality dynamics from estimated firm‐specific factors, throughout the employee wage distribution, disappears after accounting for the changing occupational content of wages.

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  • Daniel Schaefer & Carl Singleton, 2020. "Recent Changes in British Wage Inequality: Evidence from Large Firms and Occupations," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 67(1), pages 100-125, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:scotjp:v:67:y:2020:i:1:p:100-125
    DOI: 10.1111/sjpe.12225
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    3. Van Phan & Carl Singleton & Alex Bryson & John Forth & Felix Ritchie & Lucy Stokes & Damian Whittard, 2022. "Accounting for firms in ethnicity wage gaps throughout the earnings distribution," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2022-03, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    4. Brian Bell & Paweł Bukowski & Stephen Machin, 2024. "The Decline in Rent Sharing," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(3), pages 683-716.
    5. Marco Fongoni & Daniel Schaefer & Carl Singleton, 2023. "When are wages cut? The roles of incomplete contracts and employee involvement," Working Papers hal-03953201, HAL.
    6. Amossé, Thomas & Bryson, Alex & Forth, John & Petit, Héloïse, 2023. "The Micro-Foundations of Employment Systems: An Empirical Case Study of Britain and France," IZA Discussion Papers 16424, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Daniel Schaefer & Carl Singleton, 2023. "The Extent of Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity: New Evidence from Payroll Data," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 60-76, December.
    8. Brian Bell & Nicholas Bloom & Jack Blundell, 2022. "Income dynamics in the United Kingdom and the impact of the Covid‐19 recession," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(4), pages 1849-1878, November.
    9. Van Phan & Carl Singleton & Alex Bryson & John Forth & Felix Ritchie & Lucy Stokes & Damian Whittard, 2023. "Accounting for firms in gender-ethnicity wage gaps throughout the earnings distribution," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2023-16, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    10. Shakeba Foster, 2023. "Wage inequality, firm characteristics, and firm wage premia in South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2023-131, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Helmut Herwartz & David Rodriguez-Justicia & Bernd Theilen, 2022. "A New Measure of Wage Risk: Occupation-Specific Evidence for Germany," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(3), pages 1427-1462, December.

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