Wage inequality, tasks and occupations

This paper assesses the relationship between occupation attributes and changes in wage inequality finding partial support for the computerization hy-pothesis. While wages associated with non-routine cognitive tasks have risen; current versions of the hypothesis cannot explain the pattern of within occu-pation wage changes, the differential impact of various types of non-routine cognitive tasks and the declining return to tasks that complement machines. Despite significant employment shifts, occupational composition alone matters little for changes in wage inequality. Changes in wage dispersion within occupa-tions are quantitatively just as important as wage changes between occupations for explaining wage inequality between 1980 and 2000