Journal Article

The gender gap in early-career wage growth

Authors

Publication date

2008

Abstract

In the UK the gender pay gap on entry to the labour market is approximately zero but ten years after labour market entry, there is a gender wage gap of almost 25 log points. This article explores the reason for this gender gap in early-career wage growth, considering three main hypotheses - human capital, job-shopping and ‘psychological’ theories. Human capital factors can explain about 11 log points, job-shopping about 1.5 log points and the psychological theories up to 4.5 log points depending on the specification. But a substantial unexplained gap remains: women who have continuous full-time employment, have had no children and express no desire to have them earn about 8 log points less than equivalent men after 10 years in the labour market.

Published in

Economic Journal

Volume

118 (530):983-1024

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2008.02158.x

Subjects

Human Capital, Labour Market, and Wages And Earnings

Links

http://serlib0.essex.ac.uk/record=b1597352

Notes

Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to Univ. Essex registered users*

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