Job Polarisation has increased inequality across Western Europe

A compressed wage structure with many jobs in the middle range is important for maintaining cohesion in society and securing that most people have access to the middle class. However, in the last decade, many scholars have pointed out that the share of jobs in the middle range is declining. Thus, the European job structures are polarizing with more and more jobs earning either a high pay or a low pay. In this analysis, we show that this trend was strong in the late-1990s and the 2000s but that it has slowed down since then. Nonetheless, it has led to increased inequality in most Western European countries. Further, we shed some light on the differences between the Western European countries.

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