An empirical investigation of intraurban wage gradients

Intraurban wage gradients have received little attention in the urban literature but have been shown theoretically to be important indicators of the spatial characteristics of urban economic activity. This study examines the spatial distribution of wages of five groups of municipal public employees in the Chicago SMSA. Negative wage gradients, significant at the 0.05 level, are found for four of the five labor groups. Results show that monthly wages decrease on average as much as $24 per additional mile from the city center.