U.S. Wage Trends in the 1980s: The Role of International Factors

United States wage performance has been disquieting.Between 1979 and 1993, realhourly compensation rose by just 5.5 percent.This poor average wage performancehas been associated with a dramatic increase in the dispersionof earnings: both in the returns to general characteristicssuch as education, experience, and occupation and inearnings across workers with similar educational, experience,and occupational characteristics.1 In this paper I willconsider briefly the evidence on the role that U.S. internationalperformance has played in these outcomes.[...]