Earnings and labour costs

The report studies statistical relationships between low wages and firms' capacity to pay. The report shows that the proportion of employees with low wages and firms' capacity to pay varies substantially between and within industries.

This report studies inflation inequality and the measurement of real wages in Norway from 2013 to 2022. Price indices for each household are calculated to illustrate how inflation in the period depends on the level of household wage income, and how this affects real wages.

Employees who change their employment, occupation, or industry more often leave low paying jobs for higher paying ones. Employees who stay in industries where low levels of earnings are more prevalent, and who have part-time work, more often stay in low paying jobs.

From 1997 until around 2014 the inequality in the wage distribution in Norway increased. The lowest monthly earnings increased less rapidly than the highest earnings.

This paper develops a new method to study how workers’ career and wage profiles are shaped by internal labor markets (ILM) and job hierarchies in firms.