chapter 12: why wages vary

Compensating differential

the difference in wages required to offset the desirable or undesirable aspects of a job

discrimination

treating people differently based on characteristics such as their gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, social class, or other factors

Efficiency wage

higher wage paid to encourage greater worker productivity

Extrinsic motivation

the desire to do something for its external rewards such as higher pay

General skills

skills useful to many employers

Human capital

the accumulated knowledge and sills that make you more productive

Implicit bias

judgements shaped by unconscious attribution of particular qualities

Intrinsic motivation

the desire to do something for the enjoyment of the activity itself

Job-specific skills

skills that are only useful in a job with one particular employer

pay-for-performance

linking the income your workers earn to measures of their performance

prejudice

a preconceived bias against a group thats not based on reason or experience

signal

an action taken to credible convey private information or information that is hard to verify

Statistical discrimination

using observations about the average characteristics of a group to make inferences about a individual