Chart: Young workers’ wages grow more quickly in response rising employment than older workers’ wages : Change in median and average annual real wage growth in response to a 1-percentage-point increase in the employment-to-population ratio, by age group, 1980–2019

Figure J

Young workers’ wages grow more quickly in response rising employment than older workers’ wages : Change in median and average annual real wage growth in response to a 1-percentage-point increase in the employment-to-population ratio, by age group, 1980–2019

	Ages 16–24	Ages 25+
Median	0.33	0.17
Average	0.28	0.12

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Notes: Each bar is the coefficient from the regression of the real annual percent change in a given percentile’s wage on the measure of labor market tightness. Regressions include state and year fixed effects. See Bivens and Zipperer, The Importance of Locking in Full Employment (2018).

Source: Authors’ analysis of annual, state-level aggregations of EPI Current Population Survey Extracts, Version 1.0.9 (2020), https://microdata.epi.org, 1979–2019.

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Young workers hit hard by the COVID-19 economy: Workers ages 16–24 face high unemployment and an uncertain future

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