from the we're-movin'-on-up-to-the-East-Side dept.
A new study by Jeroma Adda (Department of Economics) finds that the acquisition of skills is the main contributor to higher salaries for workers, with the magnitude of the effect differing according to the type of skill and the career stage of the worker. Although workers can acquire skills on the job, those who undergo training before entering the job market generally obtain greater wages and are in unemployment less often.
To unpack their findings, it is first important to understand that research on labor markets distinguishes the tasks workers perform into two categories: routine-manual (RM) tasks, which follow well-defined and repetitive procedures that require a modest amount of training; and cognitive-abstract (CA) tasks, which require more technical and creative capabilities. [...] Their results indicate that the accumulation of RM and CA skills over the course of an individual's career is the most important driver of wage growth. RM skills contribute more significantly to increases in worker productivity and earnings in the first years of their careers, but once a set of basic skills has been acquired their contribution to wage growth reduces to zero. On the other hand, CA skills take a longer time to be accumulated, and thus take longer to affect earnings, but have a longer-lasting impact, sustained throughout the individuals' career. These differential returns translate to workers in the CA sector earning, on average, higher wages than those in predominantly RM sectors.
Such skills can also be accumulated through a training period that takes place before labor market entry, and the authors estimate the impact of undertaking such a program. When compared to untrained workers, trained individuals are able to accumulate more CA experience, which besides the direct wage benefits, also improves other aspects of job matching: trained workers become unemployed less often and receive competing job offers at a higher rate. [...]
The authors also find that mobility of workers across the labor market contributes to higher salaries. Switching between different jobs generates a significant increase in earnings, but this is concentrated in the early years of the worker's career, namely the first job move. Though this change produces large gains, these quickly decline and additional mobility does not seem to contribute to larger returns. However, the authors also observe the existence of lock-in effects: workers are initially allocated to a sector for which they are not the most suited, but the accumulation of experience specific to that sector disincentivizes them from moving to jobs in other sectors.
Journal Reference:
Jerome Adda and Christian Dustmann, Sources of Wage Growth, J Pol Econ, 2022. DOI: 10.1086/721657
(Score: -1, Spam) by Farquenshar on Sunday September 04 2022, @07:27AM
SoylentNews has become Slashdot. Never thought I would see the day!
aristarchus.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2022, @05:25PM (6 children)
The surest path upwards is to be a complete suck up to your masters. The corporate world exists to supply the superiors with sweet filth so squeeze hard to push out an oily dewdrop when they scuttle past. One day you will have your own nest of warm larvae to farm.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Sunday September 04 2022, @07:08PM (5 children)
There's an even more tried-and-true method of making big bucks than sucking up: Nepotism! Have a rich relative who gets you a "good job".
Or even better yet, be born rich enough that you never have to work a day in your life and can still be a billionaire, like the Walton siblings. This one works so well that about half of the billionaires in the world made their money that way.
Of course, there's this slight problem of, by the time you're reading this article, you probably already know if you can pull this off.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2022, @07:21PM (3 children)
At least we have elections nowadays, rather than inherited rulers. Although there's a worryingly large number of people that don't seem at all troubled by nepotist, inherited wealth orange heired clowns. He puts the nasty in dynasty.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2022, @07:45PM
That said, we certainly don't want The People weighing in on important things like abortion. That's best left to the white male elite - eh ladies?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 05 2022, @01:12AM (1 child)
You seriously think you don't have an inherited upper class? They may not be called Dukes, Barons, and Counts any more, but they definitely still exist. Just look at how many politicians, especially at the upper levels, are part of a "political family", and how they overlap with the extremely rich. "It's a big club and you ain't in it."
Or look at the outrage when an outsider managed to "steal" the Monarch job when it was "her turn".
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 05 2022, @01:09PM
Define "big" in "big club"... Looks to me like the 0.01% is pretty exclusive space that protects itself from "the wrong kind" of new members.
35,000 may seem like a lot of people if you put them all in one place, but they are spread across the US. The global club is probably closer to 0.001%, or 80,000 members total.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 05 2022, @01:01PM
For those lacking powerful connections, the traditional risk / reward tradeoff still applies.
Risky career choices in fields like AI / ML, fad of the day programming languages and management techniques (Kaizen, 7 sigma, matrix core objectives...) can bring high compensation along with unrealistically high performance expectations which can result in short terms of employment, or serve as a foot in the door for a successful pivot to truly productive endeavors.
The wild trend I have experienced in career employment is the reluctance of new employers to pay an individual less than previous salary levels, which can translate to longer periods of unemployment and near zero income between jobs if you had the higher salary before.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Sunday September 04 2022, @06:10PM (4 children)
I'm also interested in having techniques in low places [soylentnews.org].
(Score: 4, Interesting) by hubie on Sunday September 04 2022, @06:51PM (3 children)
Well, crud, I obviously missed that and submitted a dupe! Apparently I need to develop better story search skills to help increase my Soylent salary. This story caught my eye because of the recent "quietly quitting [soylentnews.org]" topic and the various discussions involved there.
My only blessing here is that it wasn't me that submitted the story the last time, because that would have been double-embarrassing.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 05 2022, @09:12AM (2 children)
But it was janrinok that posted both of them. Hmmm.
(Score: 2) by hubie on Monday September 05 2022, @04:19PM (1 child)
Well, maybe we can try cutting his remuneration to about half of what he's getting paid now until things improve? :P
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Monday September 05 2022, @08:14PM
At which point we can offer him double!