Determinants of female administrative support personnel compensation at a large public university

Compared with research on faculty salaries and executive compensations, very little is known about the earnings of administrative office support personnel. This paper constructed and estimated the total compensation variant of a modified human capital earnings model, using a 1989–90 fiscal year microdata sample consisting of about 300 all-female office workers (administrative secretaries, regular secretaries and clerks) at a large public university. The total compensation (consisting of wages plus actual dollar costs of five employer-paid health/life/accident,longevity, sick leave, vacation and pension benefit plans) specification fitted the data reasonably well. The pattern of estimated differential returns to specific human capital attributes within administrative support occupations tends to be significant, and is consistent with the ‘skill atrophy’ prediction of the human capital theory. Implications of the findings for secretarial productivity, career choice decisions and opportunities for advancement are discussed.