Millennials and the Gender Wage Gap in the U.S.: A Cross-Cohort Comparison of Young Workers Born in the 1960s and the 1980s

Using two cohorts of young workers born in the early 1960s and early 1980s, this paper analyzes the temporal change in the U.S. gender wage gap and its determinants, which persists for both explained and unexplained reasons. Results suggest that the gender wage gap closed four (seven) percentage points at the mean (median) between cohorts. It finds cross-cohort evidence that young females’ increasing returns to marriage and a changing occupational wage structure contributed to a narrowing of the gap. Nonetheless, the majority of this convergence remains unexplained due to relative improvements in unobservable institutional factors or heterogeneity for females. Compared to the previous generation, millennials likely entered a more progressive, female-friendly labor market. It is also possible that female millennials are more ambitious and competitive in their early years of work experience relative to females born in the 1960s.     

Parenthood penalty and gender wage gap: Recent evidence from Thailand

This study first examines the evolution of gender wage gap in Thailand, using cross-sectional data from the Labor Force Survey (LFS) for 1985–2017. We find that education, occupation, and industry significantly contribute to gender wage gap convergence in Thailand. Furthermore, for females, the wage gap between mothers and non-mothers has increased over time, while for males, the changes are relatively small. Thereafter, we examine the gender wage gap associated with marriage and parental status, using panel data from the Socio-Economic Survey (SES) for 2005–2012, and find wage penalty for both motherhood and fatherhood in Thailand.     

Projecting the U.S. gender wage gap 2000–40

This paper projects the gender wage gap for 25–64 year old Americans for the period 2000–40. The analysis uses data from the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (PSID) for 1995 and 1996 together with the U.S. Census Bureau demographic projections. The method combines the population projections with assumptions regarding the evolution of educational attainment in order to first project the future distribution of skills and, based on these projections, the future size of the gender wage gap. The main set of projections suggests that changing skill characteristics—specifically educational attainment—will continue to close the gender wage gap. However, even in 2040, a substantial pay gap of at least 75 percent of the size of that in 1995 will remain.     

Changing labor-force gender composition and male-female income diversity in Singapore

This paper traces the employment trends by gender in various industries, occupational groups, and educational levels in the city-state of Singapore. Over the years, Singapore’s female labor-force participation rate has increased as a result of rising educational attainment. At the same time, income inequality among the females has increased, while male-female income inequality has decreased. This paper explores the gender wage gap at various occupational and educational levels. It is found that the gender wage gap has been reduced over the period 1975–1999. This paper also finds that because of a lack of sufficient childcare facilities and unavailability of part-time work, women who leave the labor market to start families face certain obstacles when trying to re-enter the workforce.     

Why is the gender earnings gap greater in Korea than in the United States?

It has long been recognized that the gender earnings gap varies across countries. This paper examines the relatively higher gender earnings gap found in the Korean labor market compared to the US labor market. Using the data set representative of the population for both countries, I found that the significant part of the differences in the gender earnings gap simply arise from the differences in the observed characteristics of women among two countries. In particular, relatively lower labor market experience, current job tenure, and educational attainment by Korean female workers play dominant roles in explaining the observed higher earnings gap. In addition, wage structure and labor market discrimination seem to be against Korean female workers compared to US female workers. J. Japanese Int. Economies 21 (4) (2007) 455–469.     

Parenthood and the gender wage gap in urban China

Using data from the Chinese Household Income Project survey and decomposition methods, this study explored the influence of parenthood on the gender wage gap in urban China in 2002 and 2018. Our findings showed that the employment rate is lower for women than men in both childless and with child groups, and the gender gap expanded from 2002 to 2018. The data revealed a parenthood wage penalty in 2002 and a parenthood wage premium in 2018. Moreover, the parenthood wage penalty was greater for women than for men and contributed to the formation of the gender wage gap. We also found that three components: motherhood wage penalty, fatherhood wage premium, and gender wage gap in the childless group contributed to the formation of the gender wage gap. From 2002–2018, the motherhood wage penalty decreased, whereas the fatherhood wage premium increased.     

城市外来劳动力的性别收入差距与工资歧视———基于非条件分位数回归的分解方法

内容文章利用非条件分位数回归的分解方法对2011年城市外来劳动力群体的性别工资差距进行了分析.研究发现:(1)城市外来劳动力群体中,性别间受教育程度的差异已经变得不太显著,但在职业方面针对女性外来劳动力的“粘性地板”现象仍然十分突出.(2)人力资本禀赋和就业职业特征对男性与女性外来劳动力工资的影响程度有所不同,不同收入分位数上的影响系数也有明显的差异.(3)性别歧视是造成外来劳动力性别间收入差距的主要原因,而男性与女性劳动者工作经验的差距以及工作经验收益率的差异已经取代教育因素成为了性别收入差距中的突出问题     

Gender and Student Achievement in English Schools

The widening gap between the average educational achievementof boys and girls has been the subject of much discussion. Thisgap is especially controversial for students taking nationalexams at the end of their compulsory education. However, thegender gap is also apparent at earlier and at later stages ofeducation. In this paper, we analyse changes over time in thegender achievement gap at the different stages of compulsoryeducation in English schools. We first use a combination ofdata sources to paint a picture of how gender gaps have evolvedover time and in what context they are most marked. Then weconsider possible explanations for the observed gender gaps.We look at the relevance of school inputs, teaching practice,and the examination system for explaining the gender gap. Wealso discuss the potential influence of wider social and economicchanges as reflected, for example, in the much higher educationlevels of mothers relative to those of previous generations.Analysis of this issue is important in the context of researchon the gender wage gap. However, it is also raises policy-relevantissues in relation to whether changes in the school system caneffect a change in the gender gap in educational achievement. Footnotes ¹ E-mail addresses: s.machin{at}ucl.ac.uk, s.mcnally1{at}lse.ac.uk     

Superior female education: Explaining the gender earnings gap trend in Thailand

It is well-known that along with Thailand's remarkable increase in real income per capita during 1985–2005, an increase in overall income inequality was observed. What is not documented in the literature is that, during the same time period, the gender earnings inequality declined considerably. This paper seeks to identify the main factors that contributed to the decline in gender earnings gap in Thailand's wage and salary sector during 1985–2005. A parametric methodology, the Neumark (1988) version of the Blinder–Oaxaca (1973) method, is implemented in order to decompose gender earnings gap. I also make a methodological contribution by proposing a way to modify the DiNardo–Fortin–Lemieux (1996) nonparametric decomposition method so that its results are comparable to those from the Neumark version of the Blinder–Oaxaca method. The key findings of this paper are as follows. First, I find that increases in female education and changes in unobserved factors, which were concurrent with modernization, were the main sources of the decline in gender earnings gap. Second, over time, improvements in the education of females in this sector surpassed that of males. However, the superior education of females did not result in females earning higher than males due to the existing counteracting effect of the unexplained factors. Finally, the nonparametric investigation corroborated the results from the parametric methodology.     

健康人力资本与性别工资差异

现有对性别工资差异的研究大多是基于教育、经验等人力资本对工资的影响进行分析而忽视了健康人力资本的作用。本文运用中国健康与营养调查数据,将健康人力资本引入工资决定模型,对我国劳动力市场上健康人力资本对工资的影响以及性别工资差异进行了实证分析。研究发现：健康人力资本是影响我国居民工资收入的重要因素;我国劳动力市场上存在明显的性别工资差异,女性工资显著低于男性;利用Oaxaca—Cotton的分解方法发现性别工资差异中大约只有20％可以被个体特征合理解释,余下的部分被认为是对女性的歧视和没能观测到的因素所致。健康人力资本对工资的边际贡献在性别之间的差异是性别工资差异的重要来源。     

Occupational Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap in a Dynamic East Asian Economy

Labor markets in the East Asian “miracle” economies have undergone profound changes in recent decades as their comparative advantage in low-wage labor diminished and jobs shifted toward higher-skill manufacturing and services. This study uses an occupational decomposition technique to examine how such shifts in East Asia's occupational structures have affected trends in their gender wage gaps. The wage gap is decomposed into across-occupation and within-occupation factors that are each further separated into wage and employment components. Results based on a comprehensive labor force data set for Taiwan show that within-occupation pay discrepancies account for the bulk of gender wage inequity.     

Glass ceiling or sticky floor? Evidence from a distributional approach of the gender wage gap among PhD holders in South Korea

This study examines the gender wage gap, to explore whether a glass ceiling (large unexplained wage gaps in the upper percentiles) or sticky floor (large unexplained wage gaps in the lower percentiles) exists in the wage distribution of the most educated Koreans. This study focuses on seeking these distributional patterns for a theoretically homogeneous gender group, relying on a smaller dataset of PhD holders. Counterfactual methods combining recentered influence function decomposition with propensity score matching allow us to estimate how the wage gap between statistically similarly matched males and females, varies across the unconditional wage distribution. There is evidence of a strong sticky floor and a limited glass ceiling among Korean PhD holders. Results show that a negative relationship between a high level of education and the gender wage gap cannot be taken for granted, at least in South Korea. Even female PhD holders suffer from gender discrimination, especially when they are at the bottom end of the wage distribution.     

Full-Time and Part-Time Work and the Gender Wage Gap

Using hourly and weekly wages from the Canadian Labour Force Survey from 2000 until 2018, workers were separated into full-time and part-time and the following striking observation was documented. The overall gender wage gap is larger than either the full-time pay gap or the part-time pay gap, even after controlling for detailed personal and job characteristics. This result is a consequence of two findings: (i) part-time wages are lower than full-time wages, and (ii) the majority of part-time workers are women. In aggregation, this brings down the average female wage, leading to a larger aggregate gender wage gap. This was further linked to a differential selection by gender into full-time and part-time work, with women of higher earnings potential being overrepresented in the pool of part-time workers, resulting in no gender pay gap in the part-time worker category. Policies targeted at encouraging full-time employment for women should therefore reduce the gender wage gap.

     

What is Behind Increasing Wage Inequality in Mexico?

We evaluate the impact of the educational expansion and changes in labor market institutions on wage inequality among Mexican workers using a simulation technique proposed by Knight and Sabot [The American Economic Review 73(5) (1983) 1132–1136]. We conclude that while increases in the relative rate of return of higher education would have induced an increase in wage inequality, changes in the composition of the educational distribution would have led to a stronger decline in wage inequality. Instead, increased wage inequality is largely explained by changes in Mexican labor market institutions; namely, unionization rate and minimum wages.     

Occupational Segregation and Gender Wage Differentials: Evidence from Malaysia

In Malaysia, the participation of women in the labor market has increased over time. However, occupational segregation and wage differentials continue to be prevalent between men and women in the labor market. The present paper investigates gender‐related occupational segregation and wage differentials based on data collected from 7135 working households in Peninsular Malaysia in 2011. The wage decomposition model introduced by Brown et al. (1980) is used to examine the determinants of gender‐related wage differentials. The results suggest that differences within occupations account for the largest portion of the wage gap between men and women. The results also indicate that wage discrimination within occupations plays an important role in the gender wage gap, while sample selection bias plays an important role in the examination of gender wage gaps.     

Gender Discrimination and Worker Selectivity: A Comparison of the Self-employed and Wage Earners

This study compares the size and nature of the gender earnings differentials for the self-employed and wage earners in Korea, taking into account the workers’ self-selection of each employment type. The two-stage estimates of the earnings equation, corrected for worker selectivity, are used to decompose the gender earnings differentials into productivity-related and discriminatory factors. Our results suggest that the size of the gender earnings gap is larger in the wage sector than in the self-employment sector, but not by large margin, and so is the discrimination effect when not controlled for worker selectivity. With worker selectivity controlled, the discrimination effect is greatly intensified in the wage sector, while it becomes not significant in the self-employment sector. These findings imply that the observed gender earnings gap in the wage sector is largely ascribed to discrimination against women, while the gender earnings gap in the self-employment sector is mostly due to productivity difference that, in part, is caused by worker selectivity.     

Vocational Training and Gender: Wages and Occupational Mobility among Young Workers

This paper investigates the relationship between the genderwage gap, the choice of training occupation, and occupationalmobility. We use longitudinal data for young workers with apprenticeshiptraining in West Germany. Workers make occupational career choicesearly in their careers and women and men pursue very differentoccupational careers. We reconsider whether through occupationalsegregation women are locked in low-wage careers or whetherthey can move up to higher wage paths through mobility. We furthermoreinvestigate whether patterns have changed across cohorts duringthe period 1975–2001 and whether effects vary across thedistribution. The main results are, first, while there existsa persistent gender wage gap over experience, the gap has decreasedover time. Second, in the lower part of the wage distribution,the gap is highest and it increases with experience. Third,occupational mobility is lower for women than for men and thewage gains due to occupational mobility are higher for men thanfor women, especially in the lower part of the wage distribution.We conclude that occupational mobility has reduced the genderwage gap, but lock-in effects are still stronger for women comparedto men. Footnotes ¹ E-mail addresses: fitzenberger{at}wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de; astrid.kunze{at}nhh.no     

Demographic change,human capital,and economic growth in Korea

We construct a measure of human capital using micro datasets on labor composition of age, gender, education, and wage rate and analyze its role in economic growth for the Korean economy. Over the past three decades, human capital has grown steadily at about 1% per year, contrasting to a continuously declining trend of total work-hours. This growth has been driven by the rise of better-educated baby-boom cohorts. A growth accounting exercise shows that human capital contributes significantly to economic growth; it accounted for 0.5% points of annual GDP growth over the period. Human capital is projected to remain a major growth factor over the next two decades as the increase in educational attainment continues. Increased employment rate of elderly or female workers reduces the aggregate human capital growth while increasing the available labor. Polices to improve human capital of female or elderly workers help to increase aggregate human capital growth.     

Gender Difference in Returns to Education Independent of Gender Wage Gap in Korea*

This study examined the difference between male and female groups’ return on investment (ROI) in education independent of the average gender wage gap. Women’s additional ROI in education was significant and positively estimated. Furthermore, the ROI in women’s education was consistently higher than that in men regardless of educational stage, except for graduate education. These gender differences were greater in the younger generation than in the older generation and have decreased significantly in the recent ten years in high school education. Although the additional ROI in women’s education was positive in the field of culture and arts, education’s effect on wage increases in professional occupations was less than in men, especially in the fields of law and medicine. In addition, we show that gender differences in ROI in education were countercyclical. A base effect, large wage declines for low‐educated women during recessions, could explain this phenomenon. However, coinciding with the existence of positive cash flow news in the stock market that promises good business performance, a significant wage increase among highly educated women was found.     

Occupational Segregation and its Effect on Estimates of the Gender Wage Differential: Evidence from Brunei

This paper investigates the impact of the different occupational distributions of the gender groups on the gender wage differential in Brunei. We disaggregate occupational differences into explained and unexplained portions as this can provide better estimates of across-occupation and within-occupation wage differentials. Using data from the Brunei 1995 Labor Force Survey report, results indicated that the gender wage difference is approximately 60%. Unlike other studies, it is found that in Brunei the unexplained portion of occupational segregation has had an impact on gender wage differentials and accounts for approximately one-third of the observed gap. Interestingly, the unexplained component of the within-occupation gap is relatively less than in some developed economies. This is attributed to the effects of the large public sector in Brunei and its regulated pay scales.