JOB ATTRIBUTES AND FEDERAL WAGE DIFFERENTIALS

As part of the debate on how to treat attributes of a job (as opposed to a worker) when measuring federal differentials the focus has been on the proper treatment of employer size. Using employer size, we highlight the two extremes in the literature of either holding job attributes constant or of assuming attributes do not transfer between sectors. A third alternative - estimating the extent to which the attributes will transfer - is much closer in value to that generated by holding employer size constant.