Abstract

This paper uses individual level data from the U.S. Census, Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) to examine wages and employment in the U.S. apparel industry.  Total employment in this sector has been falling since 1970 and its overall average wage is the lowest of 25 industry aggregates.  But disaggregation by gender, education, and nativity reveals that groups of highly educated male native workers earn higher average wages in apparel than in other industries.  Moreover, after adjusting for observed individual differences in human capital (in addition to the three characteristics used to form worker subsets), highly educated male natives earn positive wage premiums in this sector.  In contrast, most categories of immigrants and female natives earn relatively low average wages and experience negative wage premiums in apparel.  This variation in the adjusted industry wage premiums across worker groups may be related to apparel’s relative exposure to imports and immigrant workers.

JEL Classification Codes:
J-31  (Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials)
L-67  (Industry Studies: Manufacturing -- Clothing)
F-02  (Economic Integration: General)
 

Key Words:
Wage Differential
Industry Wage Premium
Apparel
Immigration
PUMS (Public Use Microdata Sample from the U.S. Population Census)