PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Grogger, Jeffrey
TI  - Speech and Wages
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.54.4.0617.8841R
DP  - 2018 Apr 05
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 0617-8841R
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2018/04/02/jhr.54.4.0617.8841R.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2018/04/02/jhr.54.4.0617.8841R.full
AB  - Although language has been widely studied, relatively little is known about how a worker’s speech, in his native tongue, is related to his wages, or what explains the observed relationship. To address these questions, I analyzed audio data from respondents to the NLSY97. Wages are strongly associated with speech patterns among both African Americans and Southern whites. For Southern whites, this is largely explained by residential location. For blacks, it is explained by sorting: workers with mainstream speech sort toward occupations that involve intensive interpersonal interactions and earn a sizeable wage premium there.