UPDATED NOTES ON THE INTERINDUSTRY WAGE STRUCTURE, 1890-1990

The author documents and analyzes changes in wage structure across man ufacturing industries over the years 1890-1990. Interindustry differen tials in wages were highly stable over that period for production work ers, but much less stable for nonproduction workers. Interindustry wag e patterns were very similar for production and nonproduction workers in 1990, though this similarity dates back only to 1958. Although disp ersion of wages across industries followed varying trends over the per iod, it was higher in 1990 than at any previous time in this century. The variables that have been most strongly correlated with wage growth are productivity growth, rising union density, rising capital intensi ty, and profit growth.