Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP278
Authors: Robert E. Wright; John F. Ermisch
Abstract: For the first time, nationally representative data on women's employment histories are used to study the gap between women's and men's pay in Great Britain. It is decomposed into a gap attributable to gender differences in human capital characteristics (such as education, work experience, and time spent out of employment by women), and a gap attributable to gender discrimination. Using data collected in the 1980 Women and Employment Survey, we find that women's wages would be between 20 and 25 per cent higher in the absence of discrimination. This is somewhat higher than previous estimates have indicated.
Keywords: wages; women; discrimination
JEL Codes: 824
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| methodological weaknesses (C90) | underestimation of discrimination (J71) |
| gender discrimination (J16) | wage gap between married women and men (J31) |
| differences in education and work experience (I24) | wage differential (J31) |
| time spent out of employment by women (J22) | wage differential (J31) |
| equal pay legislation of the 1970s (J78) | gender discrimination (J16) |