INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS OF INTERINDUSTRY WAGE DIFFERENTIALS

We use OECD data to examine inter-industry wage differentials (relativ e wages among industries) for 14 OECD countries over the period 1970-8 5. We find, first, that the industrial wage structures have shown rema rkable stability over time in terms of rank order for all the countrie s in the sample. Second, despite their rank order stability, wage stru ctures show a tendency to expand or contract. While the U.S. has shown increasing industry wage dispersion between 1970 and 1985, the patter n is very mixed for other countries. Unionization is a significant fac tor in explaining cross-country differences. Third, industry wage rank ings show some evidence of becoming increasingly similar across nation s over time, and this movement is associated with a convergence of per capita incomes. Fourth, industry wage differentials are positively re lated to an industry's productivity growth, output growth, capital int ensity, and export orientation.