Opportunity 103: Inequality at Work

Thursday, October 2, 2008

One of the most dramatic developments in the labor market over the past 30 years has been the large increase in wage inequality that has occurred among both male and female workers. Since wages have been constant or falling for males overall, rising wage inequality has meant substantial declines in the real wages of men who are at the lower end of the wage distribution. Women have fared better in real wage terms than men, but the gap between the wages of high and low earners has also greatly increased for women. In Opportunity 103, Fran Blau, the Frances Perkins Professor of Labor Economics in the ILR School and chair of Cornell’s Economics Council, will lead a discussion on the fundamental sources of rising wage inequality and the impact these trends have had on more and less educated workers, whites and minorities, and men and women. She will also update participants on recent exciting initiatives in economics at Cornell designed to increase coordination across several economics units and enhance the university’s international standing in Cornell economics.

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