Job Tasks, Time Allocation, and Wages∗

This paper studies wage determination using the first longitudinal dataset containing joblevel task information for individual workers. Novel quantitative task measures detail the amount of time spent performing People, Information, and Objects tasks at different skill levels. These measures suggest natural proxies for on-the-job human capital accumulation and provide new insights about wage determination. Current job tasks are quantitatively important, with high skilled tasks being paid double the rate of low skilled tasks. There is no evidence of learning-by-doing for low skilled tasks, but strong evidence for high skilled tasks. Current and past high skilled information tasks are particularly valuable. ∗We would like to thank seminar participants at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Virginia, Washington University in St. Louis, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, McMaster University, Temple University, the Society of Labor Economists Annual Meeting, and the Southern Economic Association Annual Meeting for helpful comments. The project was made possible by funding from The National Science Foundation, The Mellon Foundation, The Spencer Foundation, and SSHRC †Email: [email protected] ‡Email: [email protected] §Email: [email protected]