Subject: Wage distributions from CPS data Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 14:58:53 -0400 From: Edward Flaherty Organization: College of Charleston Newsgroups: alt.politics.economics, sci.econ Here are the distribution of wages as calculated from the 1993 and 1996 Current Population Survey data sets. The 1993 set is on my web site below. The 1996 will be up in a day or so. 1993 distribution (n=18,638) Border wage Mean within group 1993$ 1998$ Top 5% $26.60 $37.72 $42.91 Highest 20% 17.30 25.07 28.52 Fourth 20% 12.46 14.52 16.52 Third 20% 9.13 10.67 12.13 Second 20% 6.53 7.87 8.95 Bottom 20% < 6.53 5.26 5.98 1996 distribution (n=22,251) %chg from 93 Top 5% $29.91 $44.33 $46.46 8.3 Highest 20% 19.23 28.62 29.99 5.2 Fourth 20% 14.00 16.51 17.30 4.7 Third 20% 10.58 12.25 12.83 5.8 Second 20% 7.72 9.15 9.59 7.1 Bottom 20% < 7.72 6.04 6.33 5.8 Other comparison stats: 1993 1996 ----------------- ---------------- nominal 1998$ nominal 1998$ ------------------------------------- Mean $12.68 $14.43 $14.51 $15.20 Median 10.56 11.96 12.15 12.73 Std dev 8.29 9.43 9.65 10.11 -- Elsewhere I posted some wage distribution data based on the data in the 1996 CPS. Here it is again, but now I add in some profile statistics for each group. Avg. Wage Group Means Within Group ----------------------------------- 1998$ Age Yrs. of Schooling Tenure ------------- ----------------------------------- Top 5% $46.46 44.3 16.4 11.7 Highest 20% 29.99 43.1 15.3 11.5 Fourth 20% 17.30 41.0 14.1 9.5 Third 20% 12.83 39.1 13.5 7.9 Second 20% 9.59 37.4 12.9 6.2 Bottom 20% 6.33 36.2 12.2 4.4 'Tenure' is the number of years the employee has with his current employer. Again based on the 1996 CPS data, here is the wage distribution and the associated educational attainment of each group. Pct with Educational Attainment Avg. Wage ----------------------------------- Within Group HS diploma Bachelor's degree 1998$ or less or more ------------- ----------------------------------- Top 5% $46.46 7.7 78.9 Highest 20% 29.99 17.8 60.0 Fourth 20% 17.30 32.4 37.6 Third 20% 12.83 40.9 26.4 Second 20% 9.59 52.5 16.2 Bottom 20% 6.33 64.3 9.9 Gee, I don't suppose there's any link between educational achievement and wage? I must also point out these figures are for full-time workers only. It excludes part-time employees. Edward Flaherty School of Business & Economics College of Charleston flahertye@cofc.edu Office phone: (843) 953-7166 Fax: (843) 953-5697 Web site: http://www.cofc.edu/~flaherty/index.html