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Conventional models of earnings assume that occupational pay structures reflect the distribution of marginal productivities. Though ubiquitous in the literature, the underlying hypothesis that wages equal marginal products rests on weak empirical bases as extant studies from the 1970s suggest that occupations at the top of the wage hierarchy are overpaid while those at the bottom are underpaid with respect to their contributions to firm-level added value. This paper surveys the theoretical literature on this productivity-wage gap and presents recent econometric evidence confirming a disconnection between the remuneration and productivity of occupational groups.