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While information technology (IT) and communication technology (CT) play different roles in organizational architecture, few empirical studies consider their distinct impacts on wage structures. Synthesizing knowledge hierarchy and information overload theories, this study examines the distinct impacts of IT and CT on wage inequality between different hierarchical layers. Using data from U.S. manufacturing industries covering 2002 to 2015, we find that the roles of IT and CT in wage structures differ depending on the hierarchical level and that wage inequality appears to be determined by the race between IT and CT. In the middle and bottom of the hierarchical structure, IT acts as a decentralizing force that reduces wage gaps, whereas CT acts as a centralizing force that widens wage inequality between managers and shop floor workers and between first-line supervisors and workers, shifting decision authority upward. For the management group at the top, however, IT favors top executives over middle managers, whereas CT provides middle managers with cost advantages in dealing with managerial decision making, thus narrowing the wage gap between top executives and middle managers. We also find that the impacts of IT and CT differ across functional areas. The implications for research and practice are discussed.