Working Paper: NBER ID: w18410
Authors: Claudia Goldin; Lawrence F. Katz
Abstract: Pharmacy has become a female-majority profession that is highly remunerated with a small gender earnings gap and low earnings dispersion relative to other occupations. We sketch a labor market framework based on the theory of equalizing differences to integrate and interpret our empirical findings on earnings, hours of work, and the part-time work wage penalty for pharmacists. Using extensive surveys of pharmacists for 2000, 2004, and 2009 as well as samples from the American Community Surveys and the Current Population Surveys, we explore the gender earnings gap, the penalty to part-time work, labor force persistence, and the demographics of pharmacists relative to other college graduates. We address why the substantial entrance of women into the profession was associated with an increase in their earnings relative to male pharmacists. We conclude that the changing nature of pharmacy employment with the growth of large national pharmacy chains and hospitals and the related decline of independent pharmacies played key roles in the creation of a more family-friendly, female-friendly pharmacy profession. The position of pharmacist is probably the most egalitarian of all U.S. professions today.
Keywords: Pharmacy; Gender Earnings Gap; Family-Friendly Occupation
JEL Codes: J24; J31; J44
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| increase in female pharmacists (J16) | decrease in gender earnings gap (J79) |
| increase in female pharmacists (J16) | increase in demand for family-friendly work arrangements (J29) |
| increase in demand for family-friendly work arrangements (J29) | structural changes in the pharmacy industry (L16) |
| structural changes in the pharmacy industry (L16) | decrease in hourly wage penalty for part-time work (J38) |
| increase in female pharmacists (J16) | structural changes in the pharmacy industry (L16) |
| structural changes in the pharmacy industry (L16) | increase in flexible working conditions (J29) |
| structural changes in the pharmacy industry (L16) | narrowing of the gender earnings gap (J79) |