Gender Wage Gap among Graduates of Russian Colleges: Between Educational and Occupational Segregation

Gender earnings gaps in Hong Kong: Empirical evidence from across the earnings distribution in 2006

This study provides new evidence of the gender wage gap among recent university graduates at different stages of their early career. Using a unique administrative dataset from Russia, we estimate the gender wage gap at means and across wage distribution for a cohort of 2018 university graduates during the first 4 years after graduation. We explore the contribution of educational and job factors to the explanation of the gap. Although a substantial gap of 14% is already present at labour market entry, it is two times smaller compared to the gap for the overall working population. Eighty five percent of the entry wage gap can be explained with differences in fields of study, work experience, and job characteristics. More than 4 years after graduation, the gender wage gap experiences a dramatic increase, reaching 26%. Only 28% of the resulting gap can be explained by the observed characteristics, including industrial and occupational segregation. The size of the gap varies drastically in different parts of the wage distribution, suggesting the existence of a strong glass ceiling effect from the very beginning of graduate careers. The rapidly expanding early career gender wage gap with a growing unexplained component suggests that education policies may have limited ability to promote gender equality in the labour market.

Educational presorting and occupational segregation

It has long been recognized that consumption behavior represents mainly joint household or family decisions rather than separate decisions of family members. Accordingly, the observational units in consumption surveys are "consumer units," that is, households in which income is largely pooled and consumption largely shared. More recent is the recognition that an individual's use of time, and particularly the allocation of time between market and nonmarket activities, is also best understood within the context of the family as a matter of interdependence with needs, activities, and characteristics of other family members. More generally, the family is viewed as an economic unit which shares consumption and allocates production at home and in the market as well as the investments in physical and human capital of its members. In this view, the behavior of the family unit implies a division of labor within it. Broadly speaking, this division of labor or "differentiation of roles" emerges because the attempts to promote family life are necessarily constrained by complementarity and substitution relations in the household production process and by comparative

This article concentrates on the measurement of both occupational and educational segre gation between the men and women of the Dutch labour force. The majority of studies which have been conducted in this area are rather one-sided, concentrating on occupational segregation alone. However, occupational segregation can be split into three components. The first component concerns presorting as a consequence of the different educational choices made by boys and girls. The second component concerns postsorting (given their educational status), as a result of the differing occupational choices and opportunities for promotion between men and women during their careers. If men and women with the same educational background are directed towards different occupations, then postsorting may add to the occupational segregation which was already induced by the earlier educational segregation. This kind of postsorting increases the gap between occupational and educational segregation. The third component, which we refer to as reintegration is also a kind of postsorting, narrowing the gap between occupational and educational segregation. This occurs when men with a ''male type'' of education and women with a ''female type'' of education come together in one occupation. Given that educational segregation of the labour force is fixed in the short term, reintegration is the only effective, but probably difficult affirmative action program to reduce occupational segregation in the short term. More usual programs are ineffective and can even be counterproductive. After using the Duncan and Duncan segregation index we construct new segregation indices which measure the relative importance of pre- and postsorting in the occupational segregation more accurately. A more detailed insight into these three components is relevant when choosing the policy instruments needed to achieve equal employment opportunities for men and women.

This paper examines the role of industrial and occupational segregation in explaining the gender wage gap and its evolution in Georgia between 2004 and 2015. It first documents the declining trends observed in the gender wage gap in Georgia during this period, commenting on some of the possible underlying factors driving such trends. It then presents evidence that employment patterns by industry and occupations are highly concentrated in the country and measures the degree of segregation using the Duncan index. Next, it analyzes if and how much industrial and occupational segregation have contributed to the gender wage gap and its decline by decomposing the gender wage gap into the within-category and between-category components. The results point to existing gender wage gaps within sectors, industries, and occupations being the primary drivers of the wage gap in Georgia, and find a smaller role of gender segregation per se in these categories.

The rapid ascent of digital platforms and the gig economy has prompted concerns about the gender pay gap. The results show that in the gig economy, gender continues to be a crucial determinant of workers’ earnings, with women earning 85% of what men earn on a monthly basis. Nevertheless, in comparison to the traditional waged employment during the same period, the gender pay gap in the gig economy has narrowed. While some gig jobs (e.g., ride-hailing services, delivery services, online education) exhibit certain occupational segregation, women in gig economy work are no longer concentrated in low-paying roles, thereby challenging the occupational crowding hypothesis prevalent in traditional employment. In the gig economy, the vast majority of the gender pay gaps arise from factors within occupations, and occupational segregation only has a very limited impact on the earnings gap. Additionally, the gender pay gap among platform gig workers can be mostly explained by observable factors, which implies that compared to traditional employment, the gig economy exhibits a lower level of implicit gender discrimination in China. Finally, we investigate new factors that determine the gender pay gap in the gig economy. Women exhibit a stronger aversion to algorithmic control, a preference for job flexibility, and a tendency toward more isolated and less socially interactive work environments—all of which serve to widen the gender pay gap that might have otherwise narrowed. The results of this research suggest that despite the criticisms surrounding the gig economy, it continues to exert a positive influence on China’s labor market.

Abstract: This paper aims to quantify the relationship between occupational gender segregation and gender wage disparities in Pakistan. Non-parametric matching-based decomposition method and a detailed set of individual and labor market characteristics, especially the detailed occupations at a 3-digit level, are used to determine the gender wage gap for males and females in and out of the common support. The results show that even though the inclusion of a detailed set of human capital, labor market characteristics, and occupational segregation by gender helps in explaining most of the gender wage gap, a large proportion of the gender wage gap remained unexplained and can be attributed to gender discrimination. A comparison of rural and urban labor markets shows a high rate of the gender wage gap in rural areas compared to urban areas of the country.

This paper examines the relationship between the gender wage gap and occupational gender segregation in Sweden. The results show that the gender wage gap varies substantially across occupations. It is small in male-dominated occupations and relatively large in female-dominated occupations. Further, as much as 30% of the overall gender wage gap in Sweden can be attributed to occupational segregation by gender. Finally, the return to work experience for women is substantially higher in male-dominated occupations than in female-dominated occupations, suggesting that the cost for work interruptions are lower in female-dominated occupations than in male-dominated occupations. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that women choose occupations in which the penalty for work interruptions is low. Thus, occupational segregation may arise because of gender differences in preferences for occupational characteristics and not necessarily because of discriminatory practices by employers.

Whereas women have caught up with men in terms of educational attainment in Switzerland, occupational segregation and labor market disadvantages still persist. It has been argued that the gender wage gap may be caused by the sex typing of occupations. Using recent data from the Swiss youth panel survey TREE, this chapter investigats in greater depth the coupling of horizontal and vertical segregation at labor market entry and the role of education in producing gender segregation. Special attention was given to the distinction between upper secondary (mainly vocational) education and higher education.

Abstract: This study examines the persistent global gender pay gap, its causes, and magnitudes through a comprehensive literature review. Despite progress in gender equality, women worldwide still earn significantly less than men. The research explores various factors contributing to this disparity, including gender-specific influences, wage structures, educational differences, occupational segregation, the motherhood penalty, and discrimination. The study analyzes labor force participation rates, time allocation in paid and unpaid work, and gender pay gap statistics across different income levels and countries. It highlights the complex interplay of societal, economic, and institutional factors perpetuating the pay gap. The review emphasizes the need for targeted policy interventions and region-specific research to address this critical issue effectively. Understanding these multifaceted dynamics is crucial for developing comprehensive strategies to close the gender pay gap and promote equal opportunities in the global workforce. Keywords: Gender pay gap, Occupational segregation, Motherhood penalty, Labor market discrimination, Wage structure

This paper analyses the extent to which gender differences in human capital contribute to explaining the observable wage differential in favour of men and its reduction since the mid-eighties among West German full-time employees in the private sector. Based on a simple analytical framework, the analysis shows that if a large part of the gender wage gap can be attributed to women's relative deficit with respect to human capital endowment, an equally large part stems from the fact that female human capital is less valued in terms of wages. The gender wage gap narrowing stems mainly from a reduction in gender inequality with respect to the returns to human capital in terms of wage which favours women. Nevertheless, women improved their relative position regarding human capital endowment, but the overall lower valuation of human capital by the labour market reduces the benefit of this relative improvement. The roles of the educational attainment, labour market experience and occupational factors were analysed specifically. The level of educational attainment explains a large part of the gender wage gap, mainly because women have a lower educational attainment than men, but also because similar qualification levels yield lower returns for women. Taken alone, the developments related to education would have increased the gender wage gap significantly. This is because, if women did catch up in terms of educational attainment, the effect of this educational expansion was more than compensated by the fact that the returns to education dropped particularly markedly for women. Changes related to labour market experience have a neutral influence on the gender wage gap. Women improved their relative position concerning their work experience, but lose their advantage in the returns to work experience. Part of the gender wage gap is attributable to occupational segregation, i.e., female crowding into lower paid occupations. The extent of occupational segregation has remained fairly stable, but the wage penalty for working in typically female jobs has increased over time.

Abstract. This paper examines the sources of the gender wage gap in the Turkish labor market by using matched employer–employee data and the standard wage regression estimations as well as the Oaxaca decomposition method. The extensive number of variables in the data set enables a thorough quantitative analysis of the role of various individual‐ as well as firm‐related factors leading to wage differentials between men and women, namely human capital endowments including job tenure, occupational and industrial segregation, private/public sector location, coverage of the workplace under collective labor bargaining, and firm size. It also examines the extent of gender‐based industry and occupational segregation within the confines of data set and computes the Duncan & Duncan segregation index. We find that a large portion of the gender wage gap is attributable to women's considerably lower levels of work experience and job tenure. Other important variables that lead to pay differentials are women's lower concentration in jobs covered by collective labor bargaining and a substantial degree of occupational and industrial segregation. The differential rates of return to many of the wage determinant variables are also found to be significant in the formation of the gender wage gap.

This study examines the role of occupational segregation in explaining the gender wage gap in Mexico. Using census data and based on the Brown et al . (1980) decomposition, it is observed that male-female wage differentials increased between 2000 and 2010. For both years, within occupation wage differentials generally increased the gender wage gap, whereas between occupation wage differentials provided the opposite effect. Since within occupation wage differentials are driven by the unexplained component, the results suggest that the gender wage gap is primarily a product of differences in the average returns to productivity related characteristics within occupations. Occupational segregation does not increase malefemale wage differentials since women do not appear to encounter barriers into high paying occupations. This result is robust to the use of different levels of occupational aggregation and when correcting the wage equations for selectivity-bias.

In this paper we show the importance of subject of degree in explaining the gender wage gap in Colombia. In order to minimize the influence of gender differences in experience, promotions, and job changes on the wage gap, we focus on college graduates who have a formal job and who have been in the labor market at most one year. Using unique, administrative datasets with detailed subjects of degree, we find that the wage gap against women is on average 11% and that 40% of it can be explained by differences in subject of degree. Using a distributional decomposition, we find an increasing gender wage gap across the distribution of wages (from 2% at the bottom to 15% at the top), although subject of degree explains a lower 30% of the gap at the top. Policies designed to reduce the gender wage gap need to address the differing gender educational choices and the factors that influence them. These policies would be more effective in reducing the gap for median wage earners.