Selected Issues in the Rise of Income Inequality.

The article discusses the issues related to the increase in income inequality in the U.S. It was suggested that the primary contributor of increased inequality is skill-biased technological change. According to a survey, the share of employees belonging to unions declined rapidly from 27% in 1979 to 19% in 1986, and then more slowly to 14% in 2005. David Card, Thomas Lemieux and Craig Ridell explained that the decline in unionization presents a 14% of growth in the variance of male wages between 1973 and 2001. The survey also indicate that half of the total increase in equality since 1966 reflects the 90th percentile gaining relative to the 10th percentile, and that the other half has occurred within the top 10th percentile.