TY - JOUR
T1 - From Escalator to Hourglass
T2 - Changes in the U.S. Occupational Wage Structure 1949-1989
AU - Massey, Douglas S.
AU - Hirst, Deborah S.
N1 - Funding Information:
Research for this article was supported by a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation. The authors thank Nolan Malone for preparing the graphics used in this paper. Address reprint requests to Douglas S. Massey, Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6298.
PY - 1998/3
Y1 - 1998/3
N2 - In this article we test whether the United States has evolved an "hourglass economy" characterized by a proliferation of jobs at the top and the bottom of the wage distribution for those with high and low educations, but few jobs in the middle for those with modest educational attainments. Rather than considering the distribution of actual wages, we examine the distribution ofoccupational wages:the average wages attached to detailed occupational categories. Using data from the 1950, 1970, and 1990 PUMS files, we compare distributions of occupational wages for men and women in 1949, 1969, and 1989. We find that the experience of men generally conforms to the hourglass metaphor: after 1969, the structure of male occupational wages polarized and began to assume the shape of an hourglass, with one's position in the hierarchy depending largely on education. For women, however, the hourglass metaphor fails. The distribution of occupational wages in 1989 remains pyramidal in shape, and position is not as strongly connected to schooling as among men.
AB - In this article we test whether the United States has evolved an "hourglass economy" characterized by a proliferation of jobs at the top and the bottom of the wage distribution for those with high and low educations, but few jobs in the middle for those with modest educational attainments. Rather than considering the distribution of actual wages, we examine the distribution ofoccupational wages:the average wages attached to detailed occupational categories. Using data from the 1950, 1970, and 1990 PUMS files, we compare distributions of occupational wages for men and women in 1949, 1969, and 1989. We find that the experience of men generally conforms to the hourglass metaphor: after 1969, the structure of male occupational wages polarized and began to assume the shape of an hourglass, with one's position in the hierarchy depending largely on education. For women, however, the hourglass metaphor fails. The distribution of occupational wages in 1989 remains pyramidal in shape, and position is not as strongly connected to schooling as among men.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0040092080&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0040092080&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1006/ssre.1997.0612
DO - 10.1006/ssre.1997.0612
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0040092080
SN - 0049-089X
VL - 27
SP - 51
EP - 71
JO - Social Science Research
JF - Social Science Research
IS - 1
ER -