Abstract
The gender segregation of occupations is an enduring feature of the labour market, and pay in female-dominated occupations remains lower than in male-dominated occupations. However, recent changes in the occupational structure have possibly altered the relationship between occupational segregation and the gender pay gap. Women's skills are increasingly in demand, and this is reducing the gender wage gap. We explore this premise using individual- and occupation-level Labour Force Survey and household panel data from Britain augmented with an innovative proxy indicator of productivity across occupations. The wage effects of occupational feminization are not as high as previously shown once this indicator is taken into account. Additionally, we find evidence that such wage effects are evolving into more complex processes, including differing impacts for graduates and non-graduates as well as for employees in graduate and non-graduate jobs. Claims that gender segregation is losing importance as a structuring factor in labour-market outcomes are therefore accurate. However, this applies mostly to women in jobs requiring high-level skills. Segregation continues to lower pay substantially for women in occupations requiring limited skills.
Highlights
The gender segregation of occupations is a long-standing feature of labour markets and is held to have pronounced wage impacts
Recent evidence shows that both occupational gender segregation and the gender wage gap are in decline, if slowly (Hegewisch, Liepmann and Hartmann, 2010; Olsen et al, 2010; American Association of University Women, 2012)
Even less clear is whether the link between occupational gender segregation and the gender pay gap is itself weakening, as suggested by Charles and Grusky (2004)
Summary
The gender segregation of occupations is a long-standing feature of labour markets and is held to have pronounced wage impacts. We find that the role of occupational gender segregation in wage determination is weakening through women’s growing educational advantage, but because an increasing proportion of universityeducated women work in highly productive professions.
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