Pay Gap Research Articles

The parental pay gap over the life cycle: Children, jobs, and labor supply

Women earn less than men, and that is especially true of mothers relative to fathers. Much of the widening occurs after family formation when mothers reduce their hours of work. But what happens when the kids grow up? To answer that question, we estimate three earning gaps: the “motherhood penalty,” the “price of being female,” and the “fatherhood premium.” When added together these three produce the “parental gender gap,” defined as the difference in earnings between mothers and fathers. We estimate (log) earnings gaps for college graduates born around 1960 using longitudinal data from the NLSY79 and from the LEHD-Census that track respondents from their twenties to their fifties. As the children grow up and as women work more hours, the motherhood penalty is greatly reduced. But women, especially mothers, seem willing throughout their working lives to trade lower pay for various amenities, such as working in firms with management practices that are less penalizing of career interruptions or of shorter work schedules. Fathers, however, manage to expand their relative earnings gains as their children age, particularly among those working in time-intensive jobs, irrespective of work hours or firm fixed effects. The parental gender gap in earnings remains substantial over the family lifecycle.

Gender wage gap and child malnutrition in Ethiopia: A probit instrumental variable method

Objective: Child malnutrition is a widespread concern in Sub-Saharan Africa. Previous studies mainly focus on the association between women's employment status and child malnutrition, however, the aim of this study is to examine the causal effect of household gender wage gap on child malnutrition in Ethiopia.Methods: This study relies on a data set consisting of 2066 children under 5 years of age using 2018/19 Living Standards Measurement Study data for Ethiopia. A probit instrumental variable (IV) method is applied to determine the causal effect.Results: Persistent gender wage gap of approximately 35% has been observed across various sectors in Ethiopia. Estimated results show that the decrease in household gender wage gap significantly enhances child growth outcomes, especially for younger girls and children in households with limited access to market. Specifically, one percentage point increase in gender wage gap is associated with a 0.74% (p<0.05) increase in the probability of stunting and a 0.42% (p<0.05) increase in the likelihood of wasting. Three mechanisms have been identified as contributing factors: more allocation of health resources to children, improved dietary diversity in the household, and increased household income.Conclusions: Policy interventions aiming at improving the children nutrition status in Ethiopia are expected to narrow down gender wage inequality accordingly. Further research is needed to explore the association using reliable and large-scale data source in other countries.

Feminist automation: Can bots have feminist politics?

This article examines ‘feminist chatbots’ as tools for activism through automation. Such bots aim to engage users in automated communication on feminist concerns. The article starts from the assumption that chatbots, like all technologies, have politics and that automation, including the automated communication of chatbots, is a feminist issue. We investigate how feminist chatbots mobilise automation to address societal inequalities and bias. Conceptually, the article draws on technofeminism and intersectionality as lenses for understanding the potential of chatbots to reflect activist concerns. Three different chatbots are analysed, using a cultural (case) studies approach: F’xa, Gender Pay Gap Bot and Betânia. The analysis suggests that feminist chatbots oppose mainstream automation by engaging users in communication about its sociotechnical risks and using automation to inspire feminist (data) activism. Yet challenges remain in designing such bots, partly because of platform dependencies and the limits of automating complex intersectional issues.

Impact of Pay Gap on Innovation Performance: The Moderating Role of Top Management Team Diversity

Impact of Pay Gap on Innovation Performance: The Moderating Role of Top Management Team Diversity

The Review of Income Equality: Definitions, Causes and Consequences

The wealthiest 20% of the United States population make up over 20% of the country's income, while the bottom 20% constitute up less than 20%. Income inequality may lead to many severe questions like peoples health and violence. Should income inequality be of concern to countries? Does the impact of wage disparity vary by country? The paper surveys the determinants of income inequality and synthesizes a vast body of literature on the factors that can influence the inequality of income. The whole passage categories determinants into (1)definition, (2)cause, and (3)consequences. The paper highlights the importance of income inequality and focuses on its effects on different aspects. After discussing various dimensions of the picture, we conclude that income inequality can be severe in some countries, thus affecting the operation of the economy, while there are some solutions to mitigate the harm it causes.

Expansions in paid parental leave and mothers’ economic progress

This paper investigates the impact of reforms extending paid parental leave on mothers’ progress to the upper echelons of their companies. Using employer–employee matched data and examining a series of reforms between 1987 and 2005 in Norway, we find that longer parental leave neither helped nor hurt mothers’ chances to be at the top of their companies’ pay ranking or in the C-suite up to 25 years after childbirth. This holds true also for highly educated women and high performers across all sectors. Key career determinants, such as hours worked and promotions, are unaffected in the short and long run. Finally, fathers’ career progression and within-household gender wage gaps have also remained unaltered.

Does the environmental tax affect the within-firm pay gap? Evidence from China

The impact of the environmental tax on internal income distribution within firms is a crucial extension for evaluating the economic effects of environmental regulation policies. However, the existing literature focuses primarily on environmental effects and the Porter hypothesis, giving little attention to this topic. Using data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2018 to 2021, we examine how the Chinese environmental protection tax affects intrafirm wage disparities. Our findings indicate that the environmental tax widens the pay gap between managerial and ordinary employees. Mechanism tests show that the environmental tax's governance effect raises managerial compensation levels, whereas cost effects decrease wages for ordinary employees. This effect is particularly pronounced in nonstate-owned firms, competitive industries, and regions with stricter environmental tax collection standards. This study makes an empirical contribution to our understanding of the effects of the environmental tax on income distribution in practice.

Gender wage gap among young adults: A comparison across British cohorts

We study the evolution of the gender wage gap among young adults in Britain between 1972 and 2015 using data from four British cohorts born in 1946, 1958, 1970 and 1989/90 on early life factors, human capital, family formation and job characteristics. We account for non-random selection of men and women into the labour market and compare the gender wage gap among graduates and non-graduates. The raw and covariate-adjusted gender wage gaps at the mean decline over the period among non-graduates, but they rise among young graduates. The gender wage gap across the wage distribution narrows over time for lower wages. Allowing for positive selection into employment increases the size of the gender wage gap in earlier cohorts, but selection is not apparent in the two most recent cohorts. Thus the rate of convergence in the wages of young men and women is understated when estimates do not account for positive selection in earlier cohorts. Differences in traditional human capital variables explain only a very small component of the gender wage gaps among young people in all four cohorts, but occupational gender segregation plays an important role in the later cohorts.

The Role of Human Capital Components in Gender Wage Inequality in India

This study investigates the gender wage gap in the Indian labour market by analysing a range of human capital components, including education, work experience, cognitive and technical skills and occupational choices, using data from the India Human Development Survey 2011–2012. We employ the recentred influence functions (RIF) regression and Firpo, Fortin and Lemieux (FFL) decomposition techniques. The results from the RIF regression analysis underscore the significant role of education, work experience, skills and occupation in wage inequality. While education and English language proficiency lead to widening wage inequality for both men and women, the effects are much larger for the latter. Next, the FFL decomposition unveils a positive gender wage gap, indicating potential favourable returns for women’s qualifications and skills, yet it exposes a concerning wage structure effect suggesting women are often employed in lower-paying jobs. These results suggest that enhancing education and skills among women can be important tools in reducing gender wage inequality. JEL codes: E24, J24, J16

Gender Wage Gap, Bargaining Power, and Charitable Giving of Households

Gender Wage Gap, Bargaining Power, and Charitable Giving of Households

Impact of Gender Pay Gap on Workplace Productivity and Employee Morale in Canada

Purpose: The aim of the study was to analyze the impact of gender pay gap on workplace productivity and employee morale in Canada. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: The gender pay gap in Canada negatively affects workplace productivity and employee morale. Disparities in pay can reduce motivation and engagement, leading to lower productivity and higher turnover. Female employees, in particular, experience decreased job satisfaction and trust in organizational fairness, affecting overall morale. This gap also hampers an organization's ability to attract and retain talent, impacting its effectiveness. Addressing pay equity is essential for improving productivity and maintaining a positive work environment. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Equity theory, social identity theory &amp; motivation-hygiene theory may be used to anchor future studies on analyze the impact of gender pay gap on workplace productivity and employee morale in Canada. Transparent pay practices involve openly sharing information about salary ranges, promotion criteria, and compensation decisions within an organization. Implementing gender pay gap reporting requirements at a policy level mandates that organizations disclose data on gender-specific pay disparities.

Evaluation of the impact of the educational revolution in Peru and the gender wage gap, 2017-2021

Background Women’s educational attainment and their generation of value through education has increased the prospects for achieving economic equality between men and women. However, women continue to earn lower wages than men, reflecting growing inequality in several countries. Therefore, the objective of the study is to estimate the impact of education on the gender wage gap in Peru over the period 2017-2021. Methods Quantitative, explanatory study aimed at identifying the impact of education on the gender wage gap in Peru during the period 2017-2021. The research design is non-experimental and uses a time series that analyses the influence of the latent variable of education on the gender wage gap. This is a continuous variable to estimate the Tobit model. Results The results show that the gender gap in Peru exhibited a decreasing trend between men and women during the period 2017-2020, with an average reduction of 10% until 2020 due to the health crisis. The highest average salary was achieved by men in 2019, reaching S/2289.97 soles, while women reached an average salary of S/1368.85 soles. In the post-pandemic scenario for 2021, the gender gap increased by 3%, with men earning an average salary of S/1999.63 soles and women earning an average salary of S/1281.16 soles. The analysis from 2017-2021 shows that years of education had a positive impact on the gender wage gap in Peru based on the Tobit model estimation. Conclusions During the analysis period of 2017-2021, years of education had a positive impact on the gender wage gap in Peru, with the greatest impact occurring during the health crisis. The probability of women’s incomes improving with an increase in years of education was 2.35%, while for men, the highest impact was in 2018, with a probability of income improvement of 2.16% in terms of marginal effect.

The dynamics of the early career gender wage gap among university graduates: The case of Russia

AbstractThis 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.

Teaching gender issues: a comparative overview on (in)equality in academia in Southeastern Europe

This study aims to examine gender issues within the framework of the European Union’s primary strategies in its external relations. The European approach, shaped by the multicultural and diverse consortium of member states, emphasizes equality between women and men. It considers factors such as the gender earnings gap in EU countries, job satisfaction, race, immigration, religion, inclusion policies, the feminization of work, work qualifications, and work context. The case studies explore gender topics across various social, political, and religious environments, with a particular focus on former communist countries within the European context. These studies analyze gender misconceptions and prejudices, women’s empowerment, and social constructs in academia.

Can mandatory local-talent hiring policy reduce regional starting wage gap? Causal evidence from Korean graduates

This study investigates the impact of Korea's mandatory local-talent hiring policy on regional starting wage disparities between non-Seoul Metropolitan Area (non-SMA) and Seoul-based university graduates. We use a difference-in-differences approach with micro-level data from Korean university graduates between 2010 and 2019. Our findings demonstrate that the policy has significantly reduced wage disparities by creating demand for skilled graduates from non-SMA universities, particularly benefiting those from top-ranking institutions. This demand has driven them to enhance their educational standards, leading to improved rankings and average GPAs. Our mechanism analysis confirms that these improvements are crucial in narrowing wage disparities. Interestingly, the treatment effects are stronger for humanities graduates compared to those in science and engineering. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers seeking to promote balanced regional development in similar contexts.

The Gender Pay Gap in Academic Currency: Leveraging Female Leadership in Entrepreneurial Engineering

The Gender Pay Gap in Academic Currency: Leveraging Female Leadership in Entrepreneurial Engineering

The Gender Pay Gap in Municipally Owned Corporations: Do Women in the Boardroom Make a Difference?

The Gender Pay Gap in Municipally Owned Corporations: Do Women in the Boardroom Make a Difference?

Psychopathic CEOs and Employee Gender Pay Gap: An Empirical Analysis

Psychopathic CEOs and Employee Gender Pay Gap: An Empirical Analysis

A Meta-Analytic Review of Pay Transparency Laws and Their Effectiveness in Reducing Gender Pay Gaps

A Meta-Analytic Review of Pay Transparency Laws and Their Effectiveness in Reducing Gender Pay Gaps

Identifying the Working Hours Thresholds Impacting Health and Gender Wage Disparities

Identifying the Working Hours Thresholds Impacting Health and Gender Wage Disparities