Abstract
One explanation for the gender pay differences in labor markets is that women propose lower desired salaries. By using an actual job seeking resume database and applying text mining techniques, we are able to observe both the extent of gender differences in desired salaries and job-related self-view. We find gender differences in global self-view favoring females, and in some domain-specific self-view favoring males. Previous findings of disadvantaged groups having levels of self-view at least as high as those of advantaged groups lend credibility to our findings. Moreover, we argue that the differences in global self-view favoring females may be related to the theories of “belief flipping”, since women in our sample of online-recruitment markets are distinct from the general population, with on average 15.2 years of education and 8.99 years of work experience, due to self-selection. In addition, we find that women do propose lower desired salary than men, after controlling for various factors such as human capital, marital status, industries. We further investigate the role of self-view and find it contributes to explain desired salaries, with modest mediator effect but little moderator effect on gender differences in desired salaries.
Highlights
Around the world, women earn less than men [1]
We find gender differences in global self-view favoring females, and in some domain-specific self-view favoring males
Beyond providing an estimate of gender differences in desired salaries caused by human capital, marital status, employment status, etc., we connect self-view to desired salaries using text data mining techniques on job seeking resumes in actual labor markets
Summary
Women earn less than men [1]. For example, in the U.S, the median weekly earnings of women above 25 years of age were about 81.3% of those of their male counterparts in 2017 [2]. Our study on actual job-seeking resumes could offer new evidence on gender differences in labor markets Another contribution of this study is the investigation of the role of self-view in determining salary differences and its possible mediator and moderator effects. While women even have slight advantage in education in terms of education years, elite university degrees and certificates held, they fall behind in work experience with shorter years in labor markets, less willingness to change jobs for promotion, and higher probability to compromise for marriage These results square well with laboratory evidence [8,10,12]. Beyond providing an estimate of gender differences in desired salaries caused by human capital, marital status, employment status, etc., we connect self-view to desired salaries using text data mining techniques on job seeking resumes in actual labor markets. Supplemental data of average housing prices by city is extracted from the Monthly Report of Housing Market in China (June 2017) published by the Chinese Academy of Social Science, adjusted and completed with reference to fang.com and lianjia.com, two largest housing transaction websites in China
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