This study employs matched employee-employer data from the UK to highlight the importance of social skills, in particular workers\u2019 ability to work well in a team and communicate effectively with co-workers, as a driver of wage growth for workers with lower formal education. Our findings indicate that in tasks emphasizing social skills, such workers not only enjoy greater wage progression with tenure but also accrue higher returns in environments with a higher concentration of more educated colleagues. Additionally, workers\u2019 exit occur sooner from jobs where social skills are more important. We rationalize these dynamics through a model that assesses social skills based on their complementarity with a firm\u2019s assets and where a worker\u2019s social skills, initially opaque to both the employee and employer, become increasingly apparent over time.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This study employs matched employee-employer data from the UK to highlight the importance of social skills, in particular workers\u2019 ability to work well in a team and communicate effectively with co-workers, as a driver of wage growth for workers with lower formal education. Our findings indicate that in tasks emphasizing social skills, such workers not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true},"thematique":[],"type-de-publication":[45],"class_list":["post-394","publication","type-publication","status-publish","hentry","type-de-publication-working-paper"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n