Few private defined benefit pension plans commit to indexing benefits after a worker begins receiving them. Previous (now dated) research found that most plans did, nonetheless, make "voluntary" adjustments, which compensated for roughly 40 percent of the price increases experienced since...

Three types of pay-setting methods are piece rates (pay mechanically linked to output), merit pay (pay based on less formal judgments by one's supervisor), and standard rates (pay based on one's job classification and perhaps seniority, but not directly on performance). Firms' choice among...

In this paper, we analyze the relationship between how long an employer has been in business (firm age) and wages. Using data from special supplements to the Survey Research Center's monthly Survey of Consumers, we find that firms that have been in business longer pay higher wages (as previous...

We consider six explanations for the positive relationship between employer size and wages -- large employers (1) hire higher quality workers; (2) offer inferior working conditions; (3) make more use of high wages to forestall unionization; (4) have more ability to pay high wages; (5) face...

In high school and college, men and women take significantly different courses. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and the National Longitudinal Study class of 1972, the authors relate these differences in school content to sex differences in adult wages. Differences...

Following Wave I HRS respondents for six waves (12 years) so that their actual retirement can be observed shows that the actual retirement hazard is substantially higher at (and around) the age that workers identified in Wave I as the "usual" retirement age for workers like them. This is true...

What happens to the employment status and earnings of workers who accept earlyretirement windows? Using data from the first six waves of HRS (1992-2002) I find that those who accepted window offers experience a sharp decline in employment - most do not go to work elsewhere. Those who do accept...