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The Wage and the Length of the Work Day: From the 1890s to 1991

Dora L. Costa^1,2,3

¹ National Bureau of Economic Research · ² University of California, Los Angeles · ³ Massachusetts Institute of Technology

I investigate how the relationship between the wage and the length of the work day has changed since the 1890s among prime‐aged men and women. I find that across wage deciles, within wage deciles, and within industry and occupation groups, the most highly paid worked fewer hours than the lowest paid in the 1890s but that by 1973 differences in hours worked were small and by 1991 the highest paid worked the longest day. I examine several explanations for the compression in the length of the work day and investigate the implications of hours inequality for earnings inequality.

DOI

10.1086/209954

Volume

18 (1)

Pages

156-181

Language

en

Export

BibTeX

Sources

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