Gender Wage Inequality Research Articles

Occupational Career Change and Gender Wage Inequality

This article examines the relationship between the changing occupational careers of female wage earners and gender wage inequality. Using Current Population Survey-Merged Outgoing Rotation Group data, it assesses the effect on the gender wage gap of changes in the composition and price both of care-providing occupations that are culturally associated with female labor and of managerial and professional occupations that are not part of the care economy, over the period 1979 to 2015. It finds that the rapid entry of female workers into high-wage managerial occupations, and their exit from low-wage private household work, contributed to gender wage convergence. However, the wage-equalizing effects of occupational shifts and related behavioral changes diminish over time, and wage convergence ceases after 2007. It also finds that female workers continue to be disadvantaged by wage dispersion and that most of the remaining gender wage gap arises within occupations. The concluding sections discuss the findings and their implications for closing the wage gap.

Correction to: Gender Wage Inequality and Economic Recession

In the originally published article the author’s family name was misspelt as “Podder” instead of “Poddar”.

Beyond the rhetoric of gender equality at the World Bank and the IMF

ABSTRACT This article reviews the rhetoric and practice of the IMF and the World Bank in promoting gender equality. It shows that these institutions, in making the case for the synergy between gender equality and economic growth, neglect both the potential of gender wage inequality to stimulate growth and the macroeconomic enabling conditions for gender equality. In practice, they fall short in promoting gender equality due to their limited conception of it, narrow assessment criteria and continued insistence on neoliberal and austerity policies.

Formal but Less Equal. Gender Wage Gaps in Formal and Informal Jobs in Urban Brazil

In developing countries, a large share of employees work informally and are not covered by employment protection legislation. I study here how gender wage inequality differs across formal and informal jobs in Brazil. The raw gender wage gap is higher in informal jobs (13%) compared to formal jobs (5%), but I show that this difference is an artefact of different male and female selection processes. First, women have better observable characteristics than men and the female advantage is stronger among formal employees. Second, men and women entering formal and informal jobs have different unobservable characteristics. Controlling for endogenous selection into formal vs. informal jobs, I find that the gender gap in wage offers is high and increases with education in formal jobs. In informal jobs, however, estimated wage offers are the same for men and women. I discuss the potential implications of these findings regarding the effect of labour market regulation on gender wage gaps.

Gender-specific human capital: identification and quantifying its wage effects

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to better understand the possible reasons behind gender pay disparities, focussing on the unique features of male and female human capital and their wage returns. Despite increasing convergence of male and female human capital attainments, substantial differences remain. Extraction of human capital components non-overlapping across genders provides more profound explanation of the unexplained wage gap of men and women.Design/methodology/approachStarting with the non-parametric matching-based decomposition technique, the authors extend the pay gap estimation framework and focus on males and females having no counterpart in a set of characteristics within the opposite gender. The authors identify gender-unique human capital in terms of differences in distribution of individual characteristics across men and women and gender-specific combination of human capital characteristics. Wage returns to gender-specific profiles are evaluated applying wage regression on both full distribution of earnings and wage quantiles. The research relies on the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) database for Estonia, which incorporates both formal education and cognitive skill records.FindingsThe study identifies sets of characteristics and competencies exclusive for both genders, proving that male and female profiles cannot be directly compared. The results suggest that men possess high individual and combined abilities in numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environment, not always reached by females. This potentiates men’s higher earnings in spite of their generally lower formal educational attainments. Wage gap analysis over the full distribution of earnings shows even larger “glass ceiling” effect for females, possessing woman-specific human capital.Originality/valueThe authors raise a research from a novel perspective towards a role of human capital in gender wage inequality. Instead of usual reference to observable gaps in male and female characteristics, the authors identify the gender-specific human capital profiles, to a large extent non-reached by the opposite gender. Analysed associations between gender-specific characteristics and earnings provide an insight to possible effects of gender-unique human capital on a male-female wage disparity.

Influence Factors on Gender Wage Gap: Evidences from Chinese Household Income Project Survey

By constructing a gender wage gap evolution model, this paper examines the source and evolutionary process of gender wage inequality from a theoretical perspective. The purpose of this study is thoroughly investigating the factors affecting the gender wage inequality from the perspective of gender discrimination and variations in non-gender endowments. Based on the Chinese Household Income Project Survey Data, this study indicates that: (1) since companies continue to re-evaluate the gender endowment value of gender, the gender wage inequality exhibits an endogenous sustainability and self-reinforcing effect. (2) The gender wage gap of urban residents is derived mainly from the top tier of wages, while the gender wage gap of the migrant people is mainly determined from the bottom rung of wages. (3) Female age has a ‘U-curve’ impact on gender wage inequality from the standpoint of non-gender endowment differences, and the female age has an ‘inverted U-curve’ impact on gender wage inequality as a result of discrimination. (4) Female appearance and actual work hours are insufficient to affect the changing trend of gender wage inequality; however, h-register location and marital status are still considered to be very important.

Decomposing the Shrinking Gender Wage Inequality in Incheon Metropolitan Area

Decomposing the Shrinking Gender Wage Inequality in Incheon Metropolitan Area

The Impact of Measurement Error on Wage Decompositions: Evidence From the British Household Panel Survey and the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey

Test–retest reliability assessments rarely investigate whether reliability itself is stable or change in reliability affects findings from substantive models. Research across the social sciences often recognizes that measurement error could influence results, yet it rarely applies established error correction methods. Focusing on gender wage inequality, we address two questions. First, to what extent does reliability vary over time, across genders and across measurement protocols? Second, does correcting for measurement error influence substantive conclusions about gender wage inequality? Comparing British and Australian panel data, we find little temporal variability in reliability; however, measurement error effects are variable and sometimes substantial.

Reducing gender wage inequality increases economic prosperity for all: Insights from Australia

This paper extends the debate about redressing persistent gender inequality in Australia by examining the relationship between labour productivity and the wage gap in all states and territories (1986–2013). It is a critical case study as Australia’s widening gender wage gap is contrary to other developed nations. Using four different estimation methods, we find that reducing the gap by 10% can boost per capita output up to 3%. To check the robustness of our findings, we also control for the effects of both physical and human capital. Our results suggest there exists a strong business case for eliminating the gender wage gap. Given the tangible benefits to both equity and efficiency, such a goal should be of paramount importance for policy makers.

The Causal Impact of Grammatical Gender Marking on Gender Wage Inequality and Country Income Inequality

In this study, we investigate, both theoretically and empirically, the impact of language gender marking on gender wage inequality and country income inequality. We find that nations with a higher level of gender marking in their dominant language have a higher wage gap between genders. Using an instrumental variable approach, we also find that gender marking has an indirect impact on country income inequality via gender wage inequality. Furthermore, we find evidence that the income inequality of a society as a whole (Palma ratio and Gini index, interchangeably) is affected by gender wage inequality. Finally, we document that linguistic gender marking outperforms survey-based cultural gender dimensions as a predictor of both gender wage inequality and country income inequality.

Decomposing the Effect of Trade on the Gender Wage Gap

This paper utilizes regional variation in exposure to increased Chinese imports in Brazil to investigate the impact of trade on gender wage inequality. We find that rising imports reduced wages in local Brazilian labor markets, but that this wage reduction was entirely borne by male workers (thus reducing the gender wage gap). Using Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions, we find that this reduction in the wage gap was largely explained by differences in the occupational employment of female and male workers, with trade increasing the female share of workers in higher-paying occupations and increasing the (relative) returns to primarily-female occupations.

Gender Wage Inequality and Economic Recession

The Paper develops a two sector full employment general-equilibrium model for a small open developing economy, with both male and female labor. One sector produces low-skilled export commodity while other sector produces high skilled import competing commodity. The effects of world-wide economic recession on gender wage inequality have been examined in such an economy. The analysis concludes that low demand for high skilled commodity and/or low volume of foreign direct investment due to recession may aggravate the average gender wage inequality in the economy.

Technical Change and Gender Wage Inequality: Long-Run Effects of India's Green Revolution

New technologies can have distributional consequences that narrow or widen existing inequalities. In this paper, I estimate the effect of India’s Green Revolution on the gender wage gap in village labor markets. Widely considered the country’s most important episode of agricultural technical change, productivity gains from the Green Revolution were due largely to the introduction of high-yielding variety seeds (HYVs). Their sensitivity to water conditions advantaged locations with reliable irrigation access, which I exploit by constructing a novel dataset of historical groundwater resources as a source of exogenous variation in Green Revolution adoption. Using data from 1956-1987 in a difference-in-differences framework, I estimate that groundwater-rich districts experienced large and significant increases in HYV adoption, crop revenues, and cropping intensity. These productivity gains affected labor markets, with male wages rising, but female wages declining, jointly raising the male wage premium an average 17 percent. Additionally, census and microdata results show women substituted away from wage work, and increased their time in unpaid own-farm work and home production. These outcomes are most likely driven by the sharp yield gains achieved with wheat HYVs. As a male labor-biased crop, the expansion of wheat production contributed to declines in female wage labor participation. These findings document how new technology shocks can generate winners and losers, and offers an example of productivity growth that exacerbated gender disparities.

Formal But Less Equal. Gender Wage Gaps in Formal and Informal Jobs in Brazil

In developing countries, a large share of employees work informally and are not covered by employment protection legislation. I study here how gender wage inequality differs across formal and informal jobs in Brazil. The raw gender wage gap is higher in informal jobs (13%) compared to formal jobs (5%), but I show that this difference is an artifact of different male and female selection processes. First, women have better observable characteristics than men and the female advantage is stronger among formal employees. Second, men and women entering formal and informal jobs have different unobservable characteristics. Controlling for endogenous selection into formal vs. informal jobs, I find that the gender gap in wage offers is high and increases with education in formal jobs. In informal jobs, however, estimated wage offers are the same for men and women. I discuss the potential implications of these findings regarding the effect of labour market regulation on gender wage gaps.

Gender wage inequalities in Switzerland: the public versus the private sector

Wage differences between women and men can be divided into an explained part and an unexplained part. The former encompasses differences in the observable characteristics of the members of groups, such as age, education or work experience. The latter includes the part of the difference that is not attributable to objective factors and represents an estimation of the discrimination level. We discuss the original method of Blinder (J Hum Resour 8(4):436–455, 1973) and Oaxaca (Int Econ Rev 14(3):693–709, 1973), the reweighting technique of DiNardo et al. (Econometrica 64(5):1001–1044, 1996) and our approach based on calibration. Using a Swiss dataset from 2012, we compare the estimated explained and unexplained parts of the difference in average wages in the private and public sectors obtained with the three methods. We show that for the private sector, all three methods yield similar results. For the public sector, the reweighting technique estimates a lower value of the unexplained part than the other two methods. The calibration approach and the reweighting technique allow us to estimate the explained and unexplained parts of the wage differences at points other than the mean. By using this, in this paper, the assumption that wages are more equitable in the public sector is analysed. Wage differences at different quantiles in both sectors are examined. We show that in the public sector, discrimination occurs quite uniformly both in lower and in higher-paying jobs. On the other hand, in the private sector, discrimination is greater in lower-paying jobs than in higher-paying jobs.queryPlease check and confirm the given name and family name is correctly identified for the first author and amend if necessary.

Economic Reforms and Gender-Based Wage Inequality in the Presence of Factor Market Distortions

A simple three-sector general equilibrium model has been developed with both male and female labour and factor market distortions. The effects of different liberalized economic policies have been examined on the gender-based wage inequality. The analysis finds that credit market reform and tariff reform produce favourable effects on the wage inequality while the liberalized investment policy becomes counterproductive. The basic model has been extended to treat domestic capital differently from foreign capital. In the extended model, all of the above results hold. Additionally, it has been found that domestic capital formation is likely to produce a favourable impact on the gender wage inequality. These results have important policy implications for a small open developing economy.

Growth Dynamics and Gender Wage Inequality in Indian Agricultural Sector: Study across Various Population Hierarchies of Villages

This paper studies three important issues of Indian agricultural sector, namely, the determinants of the agricultural wages in India, the extent to which gender inequality is present in it, and the variations in this inequality within various population hierarchies of Indian villages. The paper employs robust regression technique to deal with the presence of outliers and heteroskedasticity. Results suggest that there are four major factors that determine the agricultural wages, namely, non-farm wage factors, accessibility factors, production factors, and individual factors. Gender wage disparity is to an extent of 23% against women in comparison to the men. Furthermore, village growth is detrimental to the agricultural wages in comparison to non-farm wages and female agricultural wages are more disadvantaged with growing dynamics of villages.

Work–Family Policy Trade-Offs for Mothers? Unpacking the Cross-National Variation in Motherhood Earnings Penalties

Recent scholarship suggests welfare state interventions, as measured by policy indices, create gendered trade-offs wherein reduced work–family conflict corresponds to greater gender wage inequality. The authors reconsider these trade-offs by unpacking these indices and examining specific policy relationships with motherhood-based wage inequality to consider how different policies have different effects. Using original policy data and Luxembourg Income Study microdata, multilevel models across 22 countries examine the relationships among country-level family policies, tax policies, and the motherhood wage penalty. The authors find policies that maintain maternal labor market attachment through moderate-length leaves, publicly funded childcare, lower marginal tax rates on second earners, and paternity leave are correlated with smaller motherhood wage penalties.

Gender Wage Inequality: The De-gendering of the Occupational Structure

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.

Engaging with Dr. Plankey-Videla’s We Are in This Dance Together: Gender, Power, and Globalization at a Mexican Garment Firm

Dr. Plankey-Videla provides a complex and thorough study of a Mexican global factory that reorganized to manufacture consent but instead manufactured militancy. In particular, she is able to capture how macro-level forces such as the global economy, dynamics of neoliberalism that promote the hiring of women as a presumably docile workforce, and labor control from the nation-state impact micro-level dynamics such as firm innovations in work arrangements, workers’ economic compensation, gender wage inequality, internal conflicts among laborers, as well as labor strikes. Dr. Plankey-Videla is able to establish these multifaceted connections between macroand micro-level processes by using a feminist ethnographic approach that involved complete immersion in her study site by laboring on the industrial sewing line and participating in strikes right along with the firm’s workers. Theoretically, Dr. Plankey-Videla interjected feminist theories into structural labor processes to not only explain hegemony on the shop floor, but also to show how workers interject their own subjectivities into the workplace. Through such a framework she was able to capture the changes that an internationally renowned firm underwent to transition from the traditional piece work system to an innovative reorganization of work arrangements involving ISSN: 1076-156X | Vol. # 21 No. 2 | http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2015.34 | jwsr.org