The rise in inequality between the 1970s and the 1990s and the persistent gap in pay between large and small employers are two of the most robust findings in the study of labor markets. Mainstream economists focus on differences in observable and unobservable skills to explain both the overall...

Despite large separate literatures, the influence of establishment (plant) and firm size on wages has not been combined with estimation of public wage differentials. We find that doing so alters the estimated public differentials at each level of government. Federal workers in particular appear...

A decline in pension coverage during the 1980s for males in the private sector is confirmed and is contrasted with the federal, state, and local sectors in which no such decline is found. As a consequence, the governmental advantage in the probability of coverage grew over the 1980s. This...

Past research demonstrates that the estimated size of the federal government earnings differential shrinks substantially with the addition of detailed occupational controls. Possible explanations for this reduction are: controlling for the differing sectoral distributions of common occupations,...

Two well-documented empirical findings are that unionized employees typically receive substantially higher compensation than their non-union counterparts and that union representation in the United States has declined over time. Some observers have hypothesized a causal link between these two...

Many studies have examined the influence of union density (union members as a percentage of all workers) on earnings in the private sector, but few such studies have looked at the public sector. Using data from the 1991 Current Population Survey, this study estimates the determinants of earnings...

There is an emerging debate over whether truck drivers are 'underpaid' given their human capital and working conditions. Using data from the 2000 Current Population Survey, the pay differentials between truck drivers and other blue collar occupations are investigated. While truck drivers appear...