Using data on 271 jobs, a study showed that both worker characteristics (education, months employed or unemployed) and job characteristics (skills, mental and physical demands, tools) are determinants of pay. Females tend to hold jobs of lower value to the organization, which explains part of the male-female pay differential. (SK)

A study focused on the disabled working age population tracked changes in their labor market performance. Found from the 1960s through the mid-1970s, disabled improved their performance in labor market; their real earnings improved absolutely and relatively. In last half of the 1970s their earnings fell rapidly, the retrenchment in disability…

Using data from 1954-86, including the 1980s period of relative decline in the value of the minimum wage, a study found that a 10 percent increase in minimum wage reduced teen unemployment by less than 1 percent. In addition, no apparent effect on employment of adults aged 20-24 was found, and minimal differences appeared for sex and race. (SK)

The major finding of this study is that the rise in female labor force participation rates from 1956 to 1975 did not lower the overall level of experience. The widening gap between male and female earnings is attributed to the effects of discrimination and role differentiation. (SK)

Using National Longitudinal Survey data, the influence of personal characteristics, occupational choice, and discrimination on the occupational attainment of young men was investigated. Two conclusions were reached: (1) correcting for self-selection increases importance of occupational distribution in explaining racial wage differentials; and (2)…

This paper develops and estimates a model for the choice of part-time and full-time employment and the decision to pay for childcare among single mothers. The results indicate that a lower childcare price and a higher full-time wage rate both lead to an increase in overall employment and the use of paid childcare. The part-time wage effects are…

A computer-assisted interview elicited responses from 110 high school and college students, revealing a common belief that the returns to a college education are positive, earnings rise between ages 30 and 40, and their own future earnings are uncertain. Respondents tended to overestimate the current degree of earnings inequality in the United…

National Longitudinal Survey data were used to estimate the effects of specific high school curricula on wages and educational attainment. Return to additional academic courses was small, suggesting that the value of a year of high school cannot be accounted for by estimates of the value of courses taken. (SK)

This paper develops and tests a theory, referred to as "preference for whiteness," which predicts that the interracial (white-black) and intraracial wage gap widens as the skin shade of the black worker darkens. Using data drawn from the Multi City Study of Urban Inequality and the National Survey of Black Americans, we report evidence…

Using a logit model of occupational attainment, researchers found that economically disadvantaged women who received nontraditional training were much less likely to be employed in male-dominated occupations and received lower hourly wages. Direct labor market discrimination seems to be responsible for the inhibited occupational attainment of…

A study of Israelis who attended vocational schools (9,788) and who attended general secondary schools (4,000) matched subject studied with current job and compared earnings. Vocational education proved more cost effective for non-college-bound students. Vocational students in jobs related to their schooling earned up to 10 percent more. (SK)