Low Wage Services: Interpreting the US - German Difference / Richard B. Freeman, Ronald Schettkat.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Freeman, Richard B.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Schettkat, Ronald.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w7611.

NBER working paper series no. w7611

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wage differentials.

Job creation.

Labor market.

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Low Wage Services

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2000.

Cambridge, Massachusetts : National Bureau of Economic Research, 2000.

Summary:

Is the expansion of jobs in low-wage services in Europe restricted by high wages? With services now the main sector source of employment growth this question becomes crucial and we examine it through a detailed comparison of the role of low-wage services in the US and Germany. We find a clear low-wage service jobs deficit' in Germany but this is not due to excessively high German wages. Relative wages in low-wage sectors are extremely similar in the two countries. This is a striking finding given the much wider wage distribution in the US. The explanation for this phenomenon is the much greater intra-industry wage dispersion in the US producing similar industry mean wages as the much narrower German distribution.

Notes:

Print version record

March 2000.