A STUDY OF WAGES AND RELIABILITY

This article studies the role of reliability on the wage rate, Reliabi lity is defined in the sense of showing up for scheduled work over an extended period, Just as reliability is an important determinant of pr oduct prices, a worker's reliability ought to be an important determin ant of his or her wage, Moreover, while workers are not conveniently p ackaged by brand name, firms form expectations about reliability acros s identifiable groups of workers and thus effectively attach brand nam es to workers based on their observable characteristics. A worker's wa ge depends on his own track record and the reputation for reliability of his identifiable group, Using robust measures of reliability, I fin d that observed reliability and expected reliability substantially aff ect the wage rate and that about half of the gender wage gap can be ex plained by differences in expected reliability between men and women i n the workforce.