Skills that are difficult to automate are expected to increase in demand and reward according to skill-biased technological change advocates, who have identified high rewards for cognitive and social skills. However, such broad skill categories involve numerous essential competencies that can be differentially rewarded or go simply unrewarded. Using US data, this article analyses the demand for and payment of linguistic competency, a cross-cutting kind of skill that is basic for both cognitive and social work in the new economy and is one of the human capacities that is most difficult to automate. While human capital theory predicts an increase in wages as the demand for linguistic skills rises, from cultural/institutional perspectives, it can be theorised that communicative abilities and foreign-language knowledge are socially undervalued because of their association with feminised activities, ethnicity, and low-status service jobs. We analyse the demand and reward for linguistic skills through a two-step analysis of occupational and individual data derived from two sources: the Occupational Information Network and the Current Population Survey. Results show that while ‘hard’ verbal-reasoning skills are associated with high average salaries, as is predicted by neoclassical theory, the potentially undervalued linguistic skills – interactive and multilingual skills – are unrewarded and even penalised. This evidence requires further political attention, given its implications for large number of workers, especially in feminised, low-status service jobs. JEL Codes: J01, J23, J24, J31, J38

中文翻译：

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所有抵抗自动化的技能都会得到奖励吗？美国劳动力市场的语言技能

根据偏向技术的技术变革倡导者的建议，难以自动化的技能预计会增加需求和报酬，他们已经发现认知和社交技能的报酬很高。但是，此类广泛的技能类别涉及众多基本能力，可以通过不同方式获得奖励或根本无法获得奖励。本文使用美国的数据分析了语言能力的需求和支付能力，这是一种跨领域的技能，是新经济中认知和社会工作的基础，也是最难实现自动化的人员能力之一。从文化/制度的角度来看，尽管人力资本理论预测随着对语言技能的需求增加工资会增加，从理论上讲，由于沟通能力和外语知识与女性活动，种族和低地位的服务工作相关，因此在社会上被低估了。我们通过两步分析职业和个人数据来分析语言技能的需求和回报，这些数据来自两个来源：职业信息网和当前人口调查。结果表明，正如新古典理论所预言的那样，“硬”的言语推理技能与较高的平均工资相关联，而潜在的被低估的语言技能（互动和多语言技能）却没有得到回报甚至受到惩罚。考虑到这一证据对大量工人的影响，特别是在女性化，地位低下的服务工作中，需要进一步的政治关注。JEL代码：J01，J23，J24，