College-educated workers entering the labor market in 1940 experienced a 4-fold increase in their labor earnings between the ages of 25 and 55; in contrast, the increase was 2.6-fold for those entering the market in 1980. For workers without a college education these figures are 3.6-fold and...

We document that age profiles of labor earnings for college- and high-school-educated workers are flatter for recent cohorts than for older cohorts. Workers who were 20-year old in 1940 saw their annual earnings increase four-fold over the course of their working lives. For workers who were...