The steep rise of top wages is acknowledged as one of the main drivers of the rise in earnings inequality between workers in most postindustrial labor markets. Yet its relation to gender stratification, in particular to the stagnation in the gender pay gap, has received very little scholarly attention. Using data from the U.S. Current Population Survey, conducted between 1980 and 2017, we provide evidence of the enormous weight that the dynamic at the top of the earnings distribution exerts on the gender pay gap. We also show how this dynamic inhibits the consequences of the countervailing process of gender vertical desegregation. Although developments in gender inequality and in the rise of top wages have drawn extensive scholarly attention and have even penetrated into the public discourse in recent years, the two dimensions of inequality are often perceived as unrelated to one another. Our findings, then, highlight the connection between different forms of inequality—class inequality and gender inequality—a relation that demands much more attention in the new economy.

中文翻译：

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1980 年至 2017 年美国停滞不前的性别革命和最高收入的崛起

最高工资的急剧上涨被认为是大多数后工业劳动力市场中工人之间收入不平等加剧的主要驱动因素之一。然而，它与性别分层的关系，特别是与性别薪酬差距停滞的关系，却很少受到学术界的关注。使用 1980 年至 2017 年间进行的美国当前人口调查的数据，我们提供了收入分配顶部的动态对性别薪酬差距施加巨大影响的证据。我们还展示了这种动态如何抑制性别垂直取消隔离的反补贴过程的后果。尽管近年来性别不平等的发展和最高工资的上涨引起了学术界的广泛关注，甚至渗透到了公共话语中，不平等的两个方面往往被认为彼此无关。因此，我们的研究结果强调了不同形式的不平等（阶级不平等和性别不平等）之间的联系，这种关系需要在新经济中得到更多关注。