During the early 1980s, earnings inequality in the U.S. labor market rose relatively uniformly throughout the wage distribution. Between 1979 and 1987, the male 90/50 log hourly earnings ratio rose by 8.5 log points and the 50/10 earnings ratio rose by 13.0 log points (see Figure 1). This simultaneous expansion of upper and lower-tail inequality gave way to a significant divergence thereafter. During each of the two subsequent 8 year intervals, 1987 to 1995 and 1995 to 2003, 90/50 inequality rose by an additional 5.2 and 9.7 log points respectively, while 50/10 inequality contracted to levels roughly comparable to 1979. In fact, fully 90 percent of the net increase in male 90-10 earnings inequality between 1979 and 2003 is accounted for by the rise in the 90-50 wage gap.