High income consumers make up a growing portion of the US domestic consumer base. This study asks whether dependence on high income consumers can increase wage inequality in the industries that serve them. High income consumers bid up high status products, and reward small differences in...

From 2010 to 2019, personal earnings inequality declined in the United States (U.S.) for the first time in decades, yet household income inequality continued to increase. Discordance between trends in personal earnings inequality and household income inequality was greater than in any other...