THE WAGES OF AGING - TIME-RELATED DETERMINANTS OF EARNINGS IN THE SOUTHERN TEXTILE-INDUSTRY

The author distinguishes three time-related worker characteristics: ph ysical facility, skill, and firm attachment. In an analysis of wage de termination for a sample of textile production workers physical facili ty and firm attachment, but not skill, had significant curvilinear eff ects, These, along with exogenous effects of gender and race and endog enous effects of assignments to machine maintenance and to a weave roo m, are interpreted as reflecting power relations in the contemporary c ontext of the southern textile labor process and labor market. The ana lysis emphasizes the critical importance of contextual considerations in operationalization, specification, and interpretation for wage dete rmination studies.