Relative Earnings Research Articles

Household decisions and the gender gap in job satisfaction

AbstractThis paper offers a novel theoretical explanation for the gender gap in job satisfaction, where women typically report higher job satisfaction than men. We argue that rational family decisions can result in divergent job choices for women and men, leading to increased job satisfaction but lower earnings for women, even when their preferences and expectations align with those of men. We develop this explanation within a theoretical model of family household decision‐making that considers relative earnings disparities within households. We provide empirical evidence supporting our model's predictions utilizing survey and administrative data from Canada.

Women’s economic empowerment and intimate partner violence

This study explores the relationship between women’s economic empowerment and intimate partner violence (IPV), measured as women’s hospital visits for assault. Using longitudinal Swedish administrative data, I proxy women’s economic empowerment with a measure of potential relative earnings of married spouses caused by local changes in gender-specific labour demand. The findings reveal that an increase in potential relative earnings increases the probability of women’s hospital visits for injuries caused by assault, and the effect is particularly pronounced for women with low baseline bargaining power. Furthermore, exploiting detailed information on type of hospital visit, diagnosis and medical actions taken at the hospital, I show that the increase in hospital visits for assault is, at least in part, driven by an increase in care-seeking for IPV-related injuries rather than an increase in IPV itself.

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.

Women and men at work

Abstract We explore gender inequalities in paid and unpaid work with a focus on the UK. The average working-age woman in the UK earned 40% less than her male counterpart in 2019; sizeable gender gaps in participation, hours worked and hourly wages all contribute to this gap. We explore how these patterns have changed over the past 25 years and conclude that after accounting for women’s rising education, progress has been modest. At the same time, women do far more unpaid domestic work than men. We show how inequalities evolve around parenthood and highlight how the division of labour between parents appears remarkably unrelated to relative earnings potential. We discuss consequences of our findings for material inequality and for the economy at large. We discuss the likely impacts of various current and potential policies, including parental leave, childcare and the tax and benefit system.

Multiple Dimensions of Gender Ideologies: How They Relate to Normative Judgments of the Gender Division of Parental Leave

Abstract Previous research has found that gender ideologies are multidimensional. Additionally, their influence on work–care practices depends on the context, including the life stage, presence of children, and partners’ resources, which has received less attention. This study contributes to the understanding of the conditionality of gender ideologies by examining how dimensions of gender ideologies relate to more specific normative judgments regarding the division of parental leave and testing whether the association depends on partners’ relative earnings. I draw on data from a vignette experiment implemented in the representative German GESIS Panel and apply ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models with cluster-robust standard errors to 8,185 vignette evaluations of 2,249 respondents. More egalitarian ideologies regarding the division of employment and housework and less essentialist ideologies are associated with less traditional judgments of the division of parental leave. Support for individual choice is only associated with less traditional judgments on the condition that the mother earns more.

Migration distance from birthplace and its association with relative income and employment share among heterosexual couples in Switzerland

AbstractAmong heterosexual couples, employment of the female partner may suffer from household migration often driven by the job of the male partner. Most research has traditionally focused on the distance moved after couple formation and has neglected how far partners live from their birthplaces. Recent life course research has shown that staying in, leaving or returning to the place of origin of one or both partners often reflects couples' work–family arrangements. This study contributes to this literature by examining the division of employment between partners and their relative contribution to household income according to migration distances. We analyse data from a national sample of economically active individuals living with heterosexual partners in Switzerland. When controlling for selectivity of migrant couples, the analysis confirms that long‐distance household migration benefits men's relative earnings. Among couples who migrated within the same region, employment is more equally shared between partners than among other couples, including nonmigrant couples. The relative distance to birthplaces also matters. Women's contribution to household income is higher among couples in which men migrated close to women's birthplace and is lower among couples where women migrated close to men's birthplace compared to women in other couples. This study suggests that future research on household migration should consider important social ties and places beyond the ‘last family move’ and the mechanisms by which these ties and places influence couples' decisions about where to live together and economic outcomes.

Care Provision and the Boundaries of Production

Whether or not they provide subjective satisfaction to providers, unpaid services and non-market transfers typically contribute positively to total output, living standards, and the social climate. This essay describes some quantitative dimensions of care provision and reviews their implications for the measurement of economic growth and the explanation of relative earnings, including the gender wage differential. It also calls attention to under-explored aspects of collective conflict over legal rules and public policies that shape the distribution of the net costs of care provision.

Transitions from the formal to the informal sector in Latin America

It has been widely discussed whether informality is an exclusionary state or reflects voluntary decisions resulting from the attractiveness it might have. This paper contributes to this discussion by analyzing the main patterns and characteristics of those who transition from formal to informal sector jobs and the effects of these movements on relative earnings by examining data from household surveys for Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru. The main findings suggest that the composition of the flows of those moving to informal self-employment is more compatible with the exclusionary perspective, while those transitioning to become informal employers tend to have a profile similar to those who remain in the formal sector, aligning with the voluntary view. The behaviour of earnings also supports the heterogeneity view: those becoming self-employed workers experienced a relative loss of income, while those moving to a position as an employer generally experienced a relative increase, in comparison to those who remained in the formal sector.

To Find Relative Earnings Gains after the China Shock, Look Outside Manufacturing and Upstream

To Find Relative Earnings Gains after the China Shock, Look Outside Manufacturing and Upstream

Who Should Scale Back? Experimental Evidence on Employer Support for Part-Time Employment and Working Hours Norms for Couples with Young Children

Abstract This experimental study investigates how hypothetical employer support for part-time work shapes working hours norms for mothers and fathers with young children in Germany. It extends previous studies by focusing on the couple context, for instance by exploring interdependencies with each partner’s earnings potential. The analysis is framed using capability-based explanations combined with a perspective of gender as a social structure. A factorial survey experiment was implemented within the German pairfam panel. Linear and multinomial logistic multilevel regressions were conducted with 5,856 respondents. Hypothetical employer support similarly increases respondents’ recommendations to reduce working hours for mothers and fathers and supports dual part-time arrangements. In couples who face opposing incentives in terms of relative earnings or promotion prospects and employer support for part-time work, prevailing gender norms seem to reinforce the traditionalizing constraints and attenuate the de-traditionalizing influence. Respondents with more egalitarian gender beliefs respond more strongly to paternal employer support.

Do Higher State Minimum Wages Reduce the Racial Wage Gap for Men?

Using data from the 2019 Current Population Survey, we find that black, non-Hispanic men who reside in states with the highest minimum wages (above $10 in 2018) have a slightly smaller wage gap relative to white, non-Hispanic men. However, wage regressions show no appreciable improvement in the relative earnings of black men in states with minimum wages that exceed the federal level when accounting for other demographic determinants of earnings. Our results indicate that increasing a state’s minimum wage does not appear to be an effective policy tool to reduce racial wage inequality for men.

Impact of the Global COVID -19 Pandemic on the Earnings of the Construction Industry

The past two and half years has witnessed the huge impact of COVID-19 on the world economy. Construction industry is a pillar of the economy, buildings such as factories and warehouses and structures such as roads, docks, and dams required by various material production departments of the national economy are all products of the construction industry; machinery and equipment of industrial enterprises must also be installed by construction enterprises to form the final production capacity. is going through huge effect caused by COVID-19.This research aims to develop an understanding of how much, from which aspects and at what ratio the COVID -19 pandemic have affected the earning of construction industry by calculating the relative earnings of the construction industry through the data collected about four cities around the world. The result showed that Both the income and cost of the construction industry suffered from loss at the first stage of covid-19 pandemic. While London and NYC went through more loss in construction industry compared with Beijng and Wuhan.

Ceramic Manufacturing Workforce in India: Trends, Relative Earnings and Its Determinants

India’s ceramic industry, characterized by the transitional shift from traditional craft to modern industry, is imbibed to economic growth and development. It has witnessed a dynamic change from all hands-on deck to no hands-on deck. With an aim to understand the change in ceramic manufacturing workforce in India, the paper has analyzed the latest trends of ceramic workforce participation over the time period 1993-94 to 2020-21 using the national sample survey office (NSSO) employment and unemployment (E&U) survey data from 1993-94 to 2011-12 and periodical labour force survey (PLFS) data from 2017-18 to 2020-21. The results showcased that there was a declining trend in the overall workforce participation rate at the end of E&U survey (2011-12), however, after replacing NSSO E&U survey data with PLFS data the overall workforce participation rate showed an increasing trend. However, the study found that there was a continuous decline in the ceramic workforce as the total per cent of overall workforce. Further study highlighted that there is a wide gap between the perday earnings of ceramic and non-ceramic workers. Non-ceramic workers have high per day earning as compared to the ceramic workers that hampers the willingness of the workers to work in this industry. The study has established the impact of various socio-economic variables on per day earnings of the workers using Tobit regression model. The level of education has a positive and significant relation with per day earning of the ceramic workers. Education helps in accelerating the per day earning of the ceramic workers. Furthermore technical education have a highest positive impact on the per day earnings of the ceramic workers.

What (wo)men want? Evidence from a factorial survey on preferred work hours in couples after childbirth

Abstract The division of labour remains persistently gendered, in particular among couples with children. Previous research shows that women’s lower economic resources are an important factor driving these inequalities, but because gender and (relative) earnings are highly correlated in male–female couples, their relative importance is difficult to disentangle with observational data. Using a factorial survey conducted among approximately 700 employed men and women of childbearing age in Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, the contribution of relative earnings and gender in explaining work-care divisions in couples with children is disentangled. The results show that men and women do not differ in their preferences for their own work hours after childbirth, but both prefer the father to work more hours than the mother. Moreover, the combination of own and partners’ preferred hours shows that men and women in all three countries prefer a modified male-breadwinner model after childbirth in scenarios where the male partner earns more or partners have equal earnings. Preferences for egalitarian divisions of labour appear to be slightly stronger in men compared to women and respondents with more egalitarian views on care tasks show less gender-specialization.

Beyond the mean: Distributional differences in earnings and mental health in young adulthood by childhood health histories

Research on the long-term effects of health in early life has predominantly relied on parametric methods to assess differences between groups of children. However, this approach leaves a wealth of distributional information untapped. The objective of this study was to assess distributional differences in earnings and mental health in young adulthood between individuals who suffered a chronic illness in childhood compared to those who did not using the non-parametric relative distributions framework. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we find that young adults who suffered a chronic illness in childhood fare worse in terms of earnings and mental health scores in adulthood, particularly for individuals reporting a childhood mental health/developmental disorder. Covariate decompositions suggest that chronic conditions in childhood may indirectly affect later outcomes through educational attainment: had the two groups had similar levels of educational attainment, the proportion of individuals with a report of a chronic condition in childhood in the lower decile of the relative earnings distribution would have been reduced by about 20 percentage points. Findings may inform policy aimed at mitigating longer run effects of health conditions in childhood and may generate hypotheses to be explored in parametric analyses.

The Allocation of Housework in Same- and Different-Sex Partnerships: Recent Evidence from the U.S

Research on the division of housework among same-sex partners is limited. This is because gender-cultural theories – which emphasize the significance of gender identity and motivate many studies on the topic – are implicitly assumed to be less relevant in this case. Attending to admonitions that the division of housework in same-sex households is not free from gendering processes and practices, in this study we use the high-quality data of the American Time Use Survey (ATUS; 2003-2019), to compare the association between housework and relative earnings across partnership types. Since gender-cultural theories are based on the performance of gender identity by different-sex partners, we utilize the differences between same- and different-sex partners to better understand the effect of gender-cultural determinants on the division of housework. Our comparison of the relation across partnership-types validates the power of gender-cultural mechanisms in different-sex partners, provides a better assessment of the differences in housework patterns between different types of households, and serves as a novel quantitative test of gender-cultural mechanisms in same-sex partners.

Taking the long view: Long‐term couple earnings arrangements across the transition to parenthood

AbstractThis paper examines household earnings arrangements and parenthood. Previous research has shown that parenthood is associated with a motherhood wage penalty with women withdrawing from the labour market or reducing their work hours. But few studies have examined within‐couple relative earnings and breadwinning arrangements across the transition to parenthood. We identify three types of households—“female‐breadwinner households” (where women earn more than 60 per cent of the couple's annual labour income); “male‐breadwinner households” (where women earn less than 40 per cent of the joint income); and “equal‐earner households” (where women earn 40 per cent to 60 per cent of the joint income). Using longitudinal data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey and fixed effects models, we find a substantial decrease in the percentage of couples in equal‐earner households in the year prior to and after parenthood that is largely replaced by an increase in the percentage in male‐breadwinner households. We observe little return to pre‐parenthood earnings arrangements for equal‐earner and male‐breadwinner households. For female‐breadwinner households, we observe a gradual return to pre‐parenthood arrangements. These results provide evidence that parenthood is a major milestone contributing to gender inequality and highlight the importance of policies for reducing the impact of parenthood on women's earnings.

Long-Term Career Earnings in Academia Might Offset the Opportunity Cost of Full-Time PhD and Postdoctoral Education for Physical Therapists Who Hold a Doctor of Physical Therapy Degree.

Rigorously trained physical therapy researchers are essential for the generation of knowledge that guides the profession. However, there is a current and projected dearth of physical therapy researchers capable of sustaining research programs in part due to perceived financial barriers associated with pursuit of a doctor of philosophy (PhD) degree, with and without postdoctoral training, following doctor of physical therapy (DPT) degree completion. This study aimed to evaluate the financial impact of PhD and postdoctoral training, including opportunity cost, years to break even, and long-term earnings. Clinical and academic salaries were obtained via the 2016 APTA Median Income of Physical Therapist Summary Report and 2019 CAPTE Annual Accreditation Report. Salaries were adjusted to total compensation to account for benefits and compared over a 30-year period starting after DPT education. Total compensations were also adjusted to the present value, placing greater weight on early career earnings due to inflation and potential investments. Relative to work as a clinical physical therapist, 4years of PhD training result in an earnings deficit of $264,854 rising to $357,065 after 2years of additional postdoctoral training. These deficits do not persist as evidenced by a clinical physical therapist career earning $449,372 less than a nonmajority scholarship academic career (DPT to PhD to academia pathway) and $698,704 less than a majority scholarship academic career (DPT to PhD to postdoctoral training to academia pathway) over a 30-year period. Greater long-term earnings for PhD careers persist when adjusting to present value. Although there is an initial opportunity cost of PhD and postdoctoral training represented by a relative earnings deficit, advanced research training results in greater long-term earnings. The findings of this study allow physical therapists interested in pursuing PhD and postdoctoral training to be better informed about the associated financial ramifications.

From “Pin Money” to Careers: Britain’s Late Move to Equal Pay, Its Consequences, and Broader Implications

Despite its importance to gender inequality, household incomes, and labor markets, the reasons behind Britain being one of the last major Western nations to introduce equal pay have been relatively neglected. This article first examines the campaign for equal pay from the late Victorian era to its eventual introduction in 1970. Economists predicted that equal pay would produce substantial female unemployment, but policy makers correctly doubted this—as data collected from early adopters in West Europe and North America showed no significant rise in female unemployment. Female employment rose substantially during Britain’s equal pay implementation—while, in contrast to broadly static earnings differentials from 1950 to 1970, there was a significant reduction in the gender pay gap, followed by a longer-term trend of narrowing differentials. This article explores why equal pay expanded female employment, given the absence of any sudden rise in women workers productivity or substantial acceleration of structural change in favor of female-employing sectors. The article finds that equal pay compelled employers to reevaluate the real worth of female workers based on their substantial relative human capital growth since 1945. This had not hitherto been reflected in relative earnings, owing to barriers such as segmented labor markets, monopsonistic employers, and collective bargaining procedures that fossilized traditional gender pay differentials.

Daily labor mobility and the timing of entry into motherhood

The influence of female employment on fertility has been widely studied. However, there is a gap in the knowledge of the effect of daily labor mobility on fertility. The paper presents the study of the direct and indirect effects of commuting on the timing of entry into motherhood by comparison the age‐specific first‐birth rates of female commuters and non‐commuters. The effects appear in simultaneous decision making on childbearing and com‐ muting, and effects of cross‐municipal flows of population and earnings, and fertility norms diffusion on childbearing. Estimation strategy addresses the problem of potential endogeneity of commuting decision. The study uses individual register data from Sweden for women born in 1974 and residing in the Stockholm area following them from 19 to 32 years old. Results demonstrate that commuting women postpone their first birth. Commuters’ first‐birth rates are more sensitive to the changes in relative earnings, fertility norms, and the proportion of commuters in the residing population. Swedish family and labor policies significantly improve reconciliation of family and working life in comparison with many European countries. However, the study demonstrates that the policies do not address commuting costs (in a general meaning) in childbearing decision. The results can be used to explain the link between fertility and daily labor mobility in high‐income countries with a high proportion of women involved in daily labor mobility.