Abstract Do more educated workers earn higher wages partly because they have access to high-paying firms and occupations? We rely on linked employer-employee data to combine the estimation of AKM (Abowd-Kramarz-Margolis) models with the decomposition of the returns to schooling. We exploit exogenous variation in education driven by changes in compulsory education. We show that education provides access to better-paying workplaces and occupations: 30% of the overall return to education operates through the workplace channel and 12% through the occupation channel. The remainder is associated exclusively with the individual. Match quality plays a modest role in the returns to education.