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Trends and Patterns of Job Quality in the United States
Nkonya, Ephraim; Pender, John
2025
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Abstract

This study examines the trends and patterns of real wages, employer sponsored healthcare insurance coverage, and retirement benefits between 2000 and 2022. The analysis is disaggregated by racial and ethnic groups, sex, and between nonmetropolitan (nonmetro) and metropolitan (metro) areas. The results indicate the share of workers with high-quality jobs (i.e., jobs providing health insurance, retirement benefits, and real wages above the median within each census division as of 2000) declined between 2000 and 2022 in nonmetro and metro areas for White non-Hispanic workers and Black non-Hispanic workers but increased for Hispanic workers of all races. However, the mean real wages and the mean total value of compensation (adjusted for inflation), including nonwage benefits, increased in the study period in nonmetro and metro areas and across the racial and ethnic groups studied, but the increase is heavily skewed toward the top 10 percent of the wage and total compensation distributions.

Details

Title
Trends and Patterns of Job Quality in the United States
Keywords
Author(s)
Nkonya, Ephraim
Pender, John
Subject(s)
Issue Date
2025-01
Publication Type
Report
DOI and Other Identifiers
10.22004/ag.econ.349284
Record Identifier
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/349284
Language
English
Total Pages
53
Note
This study used public microdata from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS-ASEC) on three components of job quality including wages, employer sponsored retirement benefits, and employer sponsored health insurance. This study analyzed only three racial and ethnic groups including White, non-Hispanic workers, Black, non-Hispanic workers, and Hispanic workers of all races, who account for more than 90 percent of the U.S. workers. The authors used two approaches to analyze trend and patterns of job quality and its components: (1) categorical job quality and (2) a job quality index. The categorical job quality classification was based on combinations of real wages (above or below the median real wage in 2000 within the census division in which the worker resides), employer sponsored health insurance (provided or not), and employer sponsored retirement benefits (provided or not). The job quality index was based on estimates of employers’ total costs of wages, health insurance coverage, and retirement benefits provided to workers. Since the CPS-ASEC does not report employers’ cost of nonwage benefits, this study used U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics’ National Compensation Survey data to create indexes of the value of nonwage benefits per dollar of wages. These indexes were combined with CPS-ASEC wage data and data on whether health insurance and retirement benefits were provided to estimate the job quality index.
Series Statement
Economic Information Bulletin No. 286
Record Appears in
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) > Economic Research Service > Economic Information Bulletin

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