Workers' First Jobs and Long Term Wage Growth
Variation by Gender and Race/Ethnicity
Published Dec 5, 2024
This paper uses longitudinal data on U.S. workers to examine how early career wage growth is related to a worker’s first occupation and how these patterns vary by gender, race, and ethnicity. Workers who start in occupations with high average starting wages experience the highest wage growth, which leads to increasing wage inequality. Disparities in wage growth by gender, race and ethnicity are not fully explained by initial occupation choices.
Related Content
Topics
Document Details
- Copyright: RAND Corporation
- Availability: Web-Only
- Year: 2024
- Pages: 32
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/WRA3492-1
- Document Number: WR-A3492-1
Citation
RAND Style Manual
Abraham, Lisa, Christine Mulhern, Isaac M. Opper, Prateek Puri, and Elizabeth Roth, Workers' First Jobs and Long Term Wage Growth: Variation by Gender and Race/Ethnicity, RAND Corporation, WR-A3492-1, 2024. As of May 5, 2026: https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WRA3492-1.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Abraham, Lisa, Christine Mulhern, Isaac M. Opper, Prateek Puri, and Elizabeth Roth, Workers' First Jobs and Long Term Wage Growth: Variation by Gender and Race/Ethnicity. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2024. https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WRA3492-1.html.
This research was conducted by the Labor and Workforce Development Program within RAND Education and Labor.
This publication is part of the RAND working paper series. RAND working papers are intended to share researchers' latest findings and to solicit informal peer review. They have been approved for circulation by RAND but may not have been formally edited or peer reviewed.
This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.
RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.