2025/06/14 by James Fuller, Kelly Vosters · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Employment and Welfare Studies #Labor market dynamics and wage inequality #Retirement, Disability, and Employment
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/coep.12702
openalex publication_date 2025/06/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract We examine how veteran‐nonveteran wage gaps evolved over 1979–2017. Specifically, we estimate veteran wage differentials at each decile across the unconditional wage distribution to allow for heterogeneity in the size and direction of the wage gaps. Low‐earning veterans have consistently earned a wage premium , though it has declined in magnitude. High‐earning veterans earned a premium early on, albeit smaller (in percentage terms) than low‐earning veterans; the premium disappeared by the 1990s, becoming a wage penalty in recent decades. Decompositions of the estimated gaps reveal that lower returns to education—which worsen over time—contribute to the observed wage gap dynamics.