A guild that promotes all workers equalizes lifetime incomes despite age-based gaps

Evidence

As another example, we may consider an idealized guild economy. Each enterprise has a number of masters, a larger number of journeymen below them, and a larger number of apprentices below them. If each worker begins as an apprentice and progresses to the level of master, then guild organization would imply income inequality according to age; the degree of inequality depends on the wage differentials and the numerical proportions among the three age-related categories of workers. But incomes would be equalized over the lifetime of the workers. — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 877

Categorization

• DEFINE: Useful analytic distinction: inequality within hierarchies that everyone climbs differs fundamentally from inequality locked in by dead-end job ladders.
• XREF: connects to: Worker skills exceeding their rank threaten the enterprise’s legitimacy — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America:…, 893; Unionization decreases income inequality by disciplining employer power — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 583

Broader Connections

• Unionization decreases income inequality by disciplining employer power #expands (0.75) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 583