How do the complex institutions involved in wage setting affect wage changes? The International Wage Flexibility Project provides new microeconomic evidence on how wages change for continuing workers. We analyze individuals’ earnings in 31 different data sets from sixteen countries, from which...

What are the prospects for improving the lot of US workers in the 21st century? This introduction to the topic examines the most important US labor market trends of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, considers their causes and likely future trends; and then explores policies that might...

We describe trends in wages and labor force participation for the "working class" - whom we define as workers with high school or less education - compared to those with college or more. We compare cyclical peaks over the entire period 1979-2019, with particular focus on the Great Recession...

We describe trends in wages and labor force participation for the "working class" - whom we define as workers with high school or less education - compared to those with college or more. We compare cyclical peaks over the entire period 1979-2019, with particular focus on the Great Recession...

As inflation rates in the United States decline, analysts are asking if there are economic reasons to hold the rates at levels above zero. Previous studies of whether inflation greases the wheels of the labor market ignore inflation's potential for disrupting wage patterns in the same market....

How do the complex institutions involved in wage setting affect wage changes? The International Wage Flexibility Project provides new microeconomic evidence on how wages change for continuing workers. We analyze individuals’ earnings in thirty-one different data sets from sixteen countries,...

Has greater turbulence among firms fueled rising wage instability in the United States? Earlier research by Gottschalk and Moffitt shows that rising earnings instability was responsible for one-third to one-half of the rise in wage inequality during the 1980s. These growing transitory...