Occupations, Labor Markets and the Process of Wage Attainment

A key problem in sociology, as in economics, is explaining why some workers earn more money than others. Sociological models of earnings have stressed the role of a worker's occupation and have tended to ignore the conditions of the labor market in which he finds work. Economic models have stressed labor market functioning at the expense of considering the role of a worker's occupation in determining his wages. In this paper, I attempt to combine sociological models of earnings with (a) economic models of earnings and (b) concepts and findings from the sociology of occupations and professions. I argue theoretically and empirically that some similar conclusions about the processes governing individual earnings attainment can be drawn by examining occupations in terms of labor markets and by analysis of labor markets from the standpoint of occupations. These conclusions are: (a) that labor markets tend to be fragmented along occupational lines, (b) that the processes governing wage attainment vary from one occupation to another and (c) that occupational differences in these processes can be predicted from and explained in terms of the forces which lead to occupational segmentation of labor markets. I discuss some useful implications of my analyses for the study of the relationship between worker age and worker earnings, and I perform some empirical and theoretical analyses of occupational differences in the age-wage relationship. Data are drawn from the U.S. Censuses of 1960 and 1970 and from publications of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.