Sociology 441: Stratification

De-industrialization as a cause of growing inequality

Evidence: group differences

Danziger and Gottschalk claim (incorrectly) that the de-industrialization trend data support the theory (see our discussion). But they also cite evidence that questions how important de-industrialization is for explaining inequality (bottom of p.137).

Wage inequality is growing within most industries. Within automobile manufacturing and within fast food restaurants, the gap between the highly paid and the worst paid is growing. If the shift from manufacturing to the service sector were the primary explanation of growing inequality, then we shouldn't expect to find this growing inequality within industries. There is no shift from manufacturing to service within automobile producers or within the fast-food industry, but the growth of inequality within these industries is almost as great as the growth within the whole society.