This is a study of wage trajectories in sex-segregated and race-segregated jobs, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, with survey waves each year between 1979 and 1994, and information on when workers changed employers. This research assesses whether favorable industrial placement affects wage levels and returns to seniority to the same degree for jobs with all race and sex compositions. The alternative hypothesis is that industrial premiums, in higher wages or steeper wage trajectories, apply primarily to jobs filled largely by white males. If this is true, then the effects of sex and race composition on wages are greater in industries with higher wages. Theories of "new structuralists" posit that high-wage industries and firms also have steeper returns to seniority, because of union-negotiated seniority-based raises or internal labor markets. Yet the claim has never been tested on data with measures of seniority, nor has the possible interaction of such effects with sex and race composition been explored. The present research fills this crucial gap. %%% Scientific contributions of this Human Capital project include assessment of whether: 1) the sex and race composition of jobs affects wage levels, with composition measured for more detailed job categories than in previous research; 2) the sex and race composition of jobs affects wage growth with seniority; 3) higher paying firms also offer steeper wage growth as seniority within an organization accumulates; 4) the sex and race composition of jobs interacts with industry and firm characteristics such that premiums in industries and organizations with higher starting wages and higher returns to seniority accrue primarily to jobs filled by white males; and 5) effects of industry or sex and race composition have diminished or increased in recent years as the economy has restructured. Learning the truth concerning these hypotheses will clarify the extent to which both individuals and the nation suffer from the under -utilization of the skills and abilities of many Americans.
