April 6, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Wage differences among industries
The wages paid to
workers in similar occupations but different industries varied
substantially in 1998.
[Chart data—TXT]
The chart shows "industry wage differentials" for a number of
manufacturing and service-sector industries—the differentials compare
wages in the industries shown to wages in the miscellaneous plastics
manufacturing industry, controlling for occupational composition.
For example, on average, the wages paid any given occupation in the
motor vehicles manufacturing industry are 32 percent higher than those in
the miscellaneous plastics industry. At the other end of the spectrum, the
wages paid to given occupations in the shoe stores industry were 72
percent below the occupations’ wages in miscellaneous plastics
manufacturing.
There are a number of factors that may explain industry wage
differentials. Among them are (1) differing levels of skills among workers
in given occupations, (2) degree of workers’ exposure to unpleasant,
risky, or hazardous workplace conditions, and (3) the use of wage
differentials to reduce employee turnover, absenteeism, or shirking.
These data are from the Occupational
Employment Statistics program. To
find out more about industry wage differentials, see "Interindustry
wage differentials: patterns and possible sources," by Jane Osburn, Monthly
Labor Review, February 2000. The
miscellaneous plastics manufacturing industry was chosen as the base for
the differential calculations due to the large number of occupations that
are in this industry; otherwise the choice of base is arbitrary.
Of interest
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