ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces major cohort trends and historical processes that underlie the relationship between inequality and aging. Historical circumstances have exposed succeeding cohorts over the century to changing life conditions, new uncertainties, chances, and turning points. These historical changes have produced cohort-based variations in life course patterns and outcomes. The baby boom cohort provides a useful introduction to the study of aging and inequality because it provokes overblown images of homogeneity and agency. Age stratification theory suggests that age, cohort, and period have interacted in complex ways to produce relatively higher income coupled with relatively higher income inequality in the United States, when compared to earlier years in the post–World War II period. The human capital variables that produce wage inequality in general include education, experience or work history, part-time/full-time work, and job tenure.
