The gender wage gap by education in Italy

This paper studies the gender wage gap by educational attainment in Italy using the 1994–2001 ECHP data. We estimate wage distributions in the presence of covariates and sample selection separately for highly and low educated men and women. Then, we decompose the gender wage gap across all the wage distribution and isolate the part due to gender differences in the remunerations of the similar characteristics. We find that women are penalized especially if low educated. When we control for sample selection induced by unobservables, the penalties for low educated women become even larger, above all at the bottom of the wage distribution.     

Minimum wage violation in central and eastern Europe

This article analyses minimum wage violations over the period 2003–12 in ten central and eastern European countries which all have national statutory minimum wages. Using European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU‐SILC) data and the methodology proposed by Bhorat, Kanbur and Mayet (2013), the authors measure the incidence and depth of violation. In addition, they conduct regression analyses on individual, workplace and macro‐level determinants of non‐compliance. While the incidence of violation remains relatively low, the workers that minimum wage policies seek to protect appear to be the most likely to be affected by non‐compliance. Over time, higher minimum to average wage ratios are related to a higher incidence of violation.     

An equilibrium analysis of the gender wage gap

Within a two‐sector general equilibrium model, women's productivity in the marketplace decreases with the amount of household work they perform at home. Assuming that men's and women's household labour inputs are complementary here we prove the existence of multiple equilibria. In some, men and women allocate their labour equally and earn identical wages. In others, they allocate labour differently and earn different wages. In this context, beliefs about the inferiority of women's productivity are shown to be self‐fulfilling. By use of numerical examples, we show that welfare is highest when spouses allocate labour equally and suggest policy recommendations.     

A distribution-sensitive examination of the gender wage gap in Germany

This paper provides a new examination of the gender pay gap for Germany based on a family of distribution-sensitive indicators. Wage distributions for men and women do not only differ by a fixed constant; differences are more complex. We show that focusing on the bottom of the wage distribution reveals a larger gender gap. Our distribution-sensitive analysis can also be used to study whether the statistical disadvantage of women in average pay might be ‘offset’ by lower inequality. Over a broad range of plausible preferences over inequality, we show however that ‘inequality-adjusted’ estimates of the gap can be up to three times higher than standard inequality-neutral measures in Eastern Germany and up to fifty percent higher in Western Germany. Using preference parameters elicited from a hypothetical risky investment question in our sample, inequality-adjusted gender gap measures turn out to be close to those upper bounds.     

The measurement of gender wage discrimination: the distributional approach revisited

This paper presents the advantages of taking into account the distribution of the individual wage gap when analyzing female wage discrimination. Several limitations of previous approaches such as the classic Oaxaca–Blinder and the recent distributive proposals using quantile regressions or counterfactual functions are thoroughly discussed. The methodology presented here relies on Jenkins’ (J Econom 61:81–102, 1994) work and supports the use of poverty and deprivation literature techniques that are directly applicable to the measurement of discrimination. In an empirical illustration, we quantify the relevance of the glass ceiling and sticky floor phenomena in the Spanish labor market.     

The gender wage gap,weather, and intimate partner violence

Review of Economics of the Household - Two theories of intimate partner violence (IPV) have differing predictions on how women’s bargaining power affects rates of IPV. If an abuser enjoys and...     

Employee perceptions of the effects of a two-tier wage structure

This exploratory study examines three research questions related to employees’ perceptions concerning the effects and purposes of a permanent two-tier wage structure in their employment setting. Although much of the popular literature on employee dissatisfaction with tiers has focused on low-wage tier employees, the results of this study indicate overall dissatisfaction with the effects of tiers amongboth high- and low-wage tier employees. Financial support for this study was provided by the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and the Master of Arts in Industrial Relations Program at Wayne State University.     

Comparative advantage and the welfare effects of uniform wage policies

This paper analyzes the theoretical impact of a commonly cited union goal — the elimination or reduction of wage differentials within occupations. By dropping the usual assumption of homogeneous labor, we show how, and under what market conditions, workers will receive rents due to individual comparative advantage. In competitive labor markets a union-imposed uniform wage may lower the earnings of workers holding a productive advantage, causing a reduction in employment and a welfare loss of comparative advantage rents. The implications of a strict uniform wage rule imply that unions may be forced to adapt their wage policy to allow more productive workers to receive wage differentials. This consideration helps explain some common trade union institutions.     

Industry racial employment by skill level: The effects of market structure and racial wage gaps

Theories of expense preference suggest that market power gives employers the latitude to engage in employment discrimination. Additionally, labor market theory indicates that discrimination should cause a larger decline in black employment for prevalent and easily replaced low-skill workers relative to scarce, high-skill workers. Using industry-level data, we examine the relationship between worker skill level, market structure, and racial employment and we find that noncompetitive market structure reduces black employment for low-skill workers. In general, our findings indicate that market structure has less influence on the racial composition of highly trained workers relative to easily replaced low-skill workers     

Influence of female managers on gender wage gap and returns to cognitive and non‐cognitive skills

There is a modest but growing empirical body of evidence on the influence of managers' gender on the wages of their male and female subordinates. Most of these studies, however, suffer from a very raw approximation of the managers' gender by the share of women in charge, and often lack many important gender‐specific personal characteristics, such as non‐cognitive skills and life–work preferences, which can lead to biased results. This article copes with the mentioned deficiencies by employing a very rich and representative dataset of 1948 employees from the Czech Republic. It reveals surprising results as it shows that the gender of the manager has an effect on the level of wages, but not on the gender wage gap. It also shows that the gender of the manager and his/her subordinate has only a weak impact on the remuneration of an employee´s non‐cognitive skills and life–work preferences.     

The labor market effects of minimum wage laws: A new perspective

Economists almost uniformly argue that minimum wage laws benefit some workers at the expense of other workers. This argument is implicitly founded on the assumption that money wages are the only form of labor compensation. Based on the more realistic assumption that labor is paid in many different ways, the analysis of this paper demonstrates that all laborers within a perfectly competitive labor market are adversely affected by minimum wages. Although employment opportunities are reduced by such laws, affected labor markets clear. Conventional analysis of the effect of minimum wages on monopsony markets is also upset by the model developed. The author is indebted to Rex Cottle, Benjamin Hawkins, Hugh Macaulay, Michael Maloney, Thomas Schaap, Gordon Tullock, Gene Uselton, and Karen Vaughn for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.     

The effects of prevailing wage laws: A comparison of individual workers’ wages earned on and off prevailing wage construction projects

I evaluate the effects of prevailing wage laws using a unique data set that shows the wages paid to workers on prevailing wage projects and the wages paid to the same workers during the same time period for work on projects not covered by prevailing wage regulations. The wage comparison shows that workers are generally paid more for work on prevailing wage projects than they are for work on nonprevailing wage projects. Thus, prevailing wage laws likely do increase the cost of public construction. In addition, to the extent that the quality of construction is improved, prevailing wage laws appear to be an inefficient mechanism by which to achieve additional quality, as the regulations often result in workers being paid more than they earn in the private market. This research was done originally for the Program Review and Investigations Committee of the Kentucky State Legislature. I thank the staff of the Program Review and Investigations Committee and the Legisla-tive Research Commission for assistance with data collection and Mark Berger for helpful comments. Due to confidentiality requirements, the data cannot be made available.     

Reconsidering union wage effects: Surveying new evidence on an old topic

I examine evidence on private sector union wage gaps in the United States. The consensus opinion among labor economists of an average union premium of roughly 15 percent is called into question. Two forms of measurement error bias downward standard wage gap estimates. Match bias results from Census earnings imputation procedures that do not include union status as a match criterion. Downward bias is roughly equal to the proportion of workers with imputed earnings, currently about 30 percent. Misclassification of union status causes additional attenuation in union gap measures. This bias has worsened as private sector density has declined, since an increasing proportion of workers designated as union are instead nonunion workers. Corrections for misclassification and match bias lead to estimated union gaps substantially higher than standard estimates, but with less of a downward trend since the mid 1980s. Private sector union gaps corrected for these biases are estimated from the CPS for 1973–2001. The uncorrected estimate for 2001 is .13 log points. Correction for match bias increases the gap to .18 log points; further correction for misclassification bias, based on an assumed 2 percent error rate, increases the gap to .24. Reexamination of the skill-upgrading hypothesis leads to the conclusion that higher union gap estimates are plausible. The conventional wisdom of a 15 percent union wage premium warrants reexamination.     

Recent minimum wage increases and the minimum wage labor force

Coclusion  Recently Whaples (1996) reported that most labor economists believe that minimum wage laws decrease employment. Despite this, policy makers have continued to periodically raise the minimum, with the most recent increases occurring in October 1996 and September 1997. The various analyses done by Card, Katz, and Krueger, that showed little to no employment effect of past minimum wage increases, have provided additional ammunition for those who would seek further increases. However, using the estimates of Williams and Mills (1998), we demonstrate that the latest minimum wage increases substantially decreased employment for both sexes. We believe that future increases will do likewise.     

Cognitive and socioemotional skills and wages: the role of latent abilities on the gender wage gap in Peru

Review of Economics of the Household - The literature provides evidence on the positive connection between cognitive test scores and higher wages. Fewer and newer studies have explored the...