Over the last 30 years, wage inequality in the United States has increased substantially, with overall levels of inequality closing in on unprecedented levels. This overall trend is complicated, however, by somewhat different patterns of change at the top and bottom of the wage distribution. “Lower-tail” inequality is measured here by taking the ratio of wages at the middle of the income distribution (i.e., the 50th percentile) to those near the bottom of the distribution (i.e., the 10th percentile), and “upper-tail” inequality is measured by taking the ratio of wages near the top of the distribution (i.e., the 90th percentile) to those at the middle of the distribution (i.e., the 50th percentile of workers). We find that lower-tail (50/10) inequality rose sharply in the 1980s and contracted somewhat thereafter, while upper-tail (90/50) inequality has increased steadily since 1980.