The occupational structure of many labour markets has shifted away from middle earning routine work (Goos and Manning, 2007). This polarisation phenomenon raises the question about the consequences for earnings distributions – a polarised workforce should be, all things being equal, increase the incidence of high pay and low pay and raise earnings inequality. The labour market has changed in lots of other ways during the same period, which also affects the distribution of pay. Moreover, if the wage structure of jobs changes, it becomes even less clear that middle wage work should decline significantly This paper examines earnings data in the UK between 1987 and 2007 and argues that: (i) the composition of the labour market in terms of occupations, education and union membership have driven work towards high and low pay; (ii) wage structure effects have offset these changes (iii) these wage structure effects have become more pronounced in the past two decades, meaning there are now more middle wage jobs in the UK just before the last recession than in the early 1990s. The paper finally considers the implications of these findings for skills and education policy.
Presented by:
Craig Holmes (Oxford University)
Date & time:
October 21, 2013 2:00 pm - October 21, 2013 3:30 pm
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