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Investment in Qualitybecame significantly more generous than in the UK (Nolan et al.,2000a). In view of these differences, it is difficult to understand whythere was a larger increase in earnings dispersion in Ireland than theUK over the 1987 to 1994 period.The most recent earnings data referred to here are for 1997. Morerecent years have seen the emergence of labour shortages for alltypes of labour, including unskilled labour so that this period hasseen stronger growth in wages among lower income employees.This period also saw the introduction of a minimum wage. Theoverall direction in the distribution of earnings in the most recentyears is not known.Changes in Household IncomeThe widening earnings distribution analysed above would, in itself,have contributed to a more unequal distribution of market earningsacross individuals and skill groups. However, as discussed above,the distribution of market income across households has been fairlystable in recent years, and, in fact, became somewhat more equal.The primary factor contributing to the more equal distribution ofmarket income across households has been the very strong growthof employment since the mid-1990s. This contributed to asignificant increase in the income shares of the third, fourth andfifth deciles.An important feature of recent social development has been theincrease in female labour force participation. The effect of changesin female labour supply and wages on household incomedistribution has been examined by O’Neill and Sweetman (2000).They found that the rise in employment rates of married women wasconcentrated among women married to men with below averageearnings, although women married to unemployed men were anexception to this. The rise in employment rates among spouses ofmen with below average earnings would tend to have an equalisingaffect on the distribution of household income. On the other hand,the distribution of female wages tends to be significantly moredispersed than that of male earnings. As female earnings becomemore important in their share of household income, this would tend118