QED Working Paper Number
1398

This paper looks at changes in employment and relative wages of near higher earnings (NHE) workers between middle-class (MC) and higher earners (HE) in Canada over 2000-2015. An approach is also forwarded for evaluating these changes in terms of underlying demand and supply factors. It is found that the NHE behaves as a transition group between quite different patterns of change of the MC and HE groups, and that these changes have been recently attenuating. The MC group experienced a downward shift in employment demand, the HE group an upward shift in demand, and the NHE group an upward shift in supply of workers.

Author(s)
JEL Codes
Keywords
near higher earnings
Income equality
Canadian earnings
Working Paper