The Distribution of Income in Ireland (2000) - Combat Poverty Agency

76The Distribution of Income in IrelandThe Distribution of Earnings 77able increase in dispersion within that education category between1987 and 1994.It is also instructive to look within particular age ranges. Focusingon employees aged 25-39, once again there was a substantialshift in educational profile between 1987 and 1994. Thepercentage with only primary-level qualifications fell from 23per cent to only 9 per cent for this sub-set, and the percentagewith a university degree rose to 16 per cent. The higher levelsof educational attainment again show a relatively rapid rate ofincrease in median earnings. The overall dispersion in hourlyearnings has risen for this age range though more modestlyUian for all employees, with the ratio of the top to the bottomdecile going from 3.1 to 3.3. Dispersion has increased withinmost education groups, with the largest increase again forthose with university degrees.Such analyses of trends in earnings of employees crossciassifiedby sex, age and education category are useful, but*e influence of different factors, notably returns to education,can be distmguished more easily using estimated earningsequations. The extent to which wage premia for different education^qualifications changed over the period has been innotH;d - USm ? that a roach inPP Barrett, Callan and Nolan(1999). Using the 1987 and 1994 datasets, standard humana m^h9e < B T ti0nS 'baSSd ° n edu