@techreport{NBERw7611,
 title = "Low Wage Services: Interpreting the US - German Difference",
 author = "Richard B. Freeman and Ronald Schettkat",
 institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research",
 type = "Working Paper",
 series = "Working Paper Series",
 number = "7611",
 year = "2000",
 month = "March",
 URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w7611",
 abstract = {Is the expansion of jobs in low-wage services in Europe restricted by high wages? With services now the main sector source of employment growth this question becomes crucial and we examine it through a detailed comparison of the role of low-wage services in the US and Germany. We find a clear low-wage service jobs deficit' in Germany but this is not due to excessively high German wages. Relative wages in low-wage sectors are extremely similar in the two countries. This is a striking finding given the much wider wage distribution in the US. The explanation for this phenomenon is the much greater intra-industry wage dispersion in the US producing similar industry mean wages as the much narrower German distribution.},
}