In this empirical paper, I use the 1996 wave of the ECHP dataset to investigate the relationship between measures of wage compression and training incidence in 11 European countries. I find that, after controlling for individual factors and country specific institutional differences, there is evidence of a positive and significant relationship between wage compression and training. This positive relationship is confirmed when I consider only general training. While the former finding is consistent with both competitive and non – competitive approaches to training, the latter result is only consistent with the non – competitive approach.