Wage Changes in Job Changes

Abstract

This is a study of short and longer-runwage gains observed in moving from one job (firm) to the next. Short-run wage gains are defined as wage changes over the survey year bracketing the move minus the opportunity cost of moving. The latter is measured by waqe growth of a subgroup of stayers whose mobility behavior and other charactristics are the same as of the current period movers. Longer-run wage gains are defined as the difference in wages between two successive jobs at the same tenure levels, net of experience, again net of opnortunity costs. Wage gains of movers are generally positive, except for layoffsof older workers. A large part of the gain is due to the lesser wage growth on the job of movers compared to (all) stayers. This is consistent with below average amounts of on the job training observed for movers compared to all workers. Wage gains of quits exceed those of layoffs, despite similar wage levels and wage growth on the preceding job. Wage gains of older movers are smaller compared to gains of younger movers, both in quits and in layoffs. Differences in search conditions and in the nature of separations help to explain these findings.