Talent reward and gender wage gap in the hospitality industry

Abstract

In this paper, we estimate the returns from human capital and the gender wage gap by applying Oaxaca and Ransom's decomposition method to a database of 2240 workers in the Spanish hospitality. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relative impact of talent and gender on wages and value generation among highly qualified white-collar workers in the Spanish tourism sector. Our results show relevant information on the attitude of firms toward talent management and reward and highlight the relevance of sectoral agreements in the hospitality sector. The results suggest a growing commitment among Spanish hospitality companies to the better management of talent and the commitment of workers with education as the best way to keep their job and improve their career. Our findings highlight union negotiations to reduce the gender wage gap, as well as with to improve significantly some variables related to human capital and suggests a commitment on the part of companies to retain talent. However, this increase differed by gender: more managerial positions were gained by men than by women.