Why is the gender wage gap mostly an issue now for the middle class and rich?
30 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in gender, health and safety, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: College premium, compensating differentials, gender wage gap, graduate premium, reversing gender wage
Humanities, arts, computing and engineering degrees awarded by gender, USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
30 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, occupational choice Tags: economics of personality traits, gender wage gap, reversing gender gap
Figure 1: Percentage of tertiary degrees awarded in humanities and arts qualifications by gender, 2012
Source: OECD Education Database.
Figure 2: percentage of tertiary degrees awarded in computing qualifications by gender, 2012
Source: OECD Education Database.
Figure 3: Percentage of tertiary degrees awarded in engineering, manufacturing and construction qualifications by gender, 2012
Source: OECD Education Database.
The reverse gender tertiary education gap for ages 25–34, Anglo-Saxon countries
14 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Australia, British economy, Canada, College premium, education premium, gender wage gap, Ireland
Figure 1: % population who have attained at least tertiary education, age 25 – 34 by gender (2012)
Source: OECD family database.
Figure 2 shows that the stark reversing of the gender gap in educational attainment shown in figure 1 was somewhat more recent in the US, UK and to a lesser extent in Ireland and Australia. In the UK and USA, educational attainment by gender was pretty equal for the earlier generation of graduates as compared to today’s 25 to 34-year-olds. The reversing of the gender gap in educational attainment dates back several decades in Canada and New Zealand.
Figure 2: % population who have attained at least tertiary education, age 45 – 54 by gender (2012)
Source: OECD family database.
Gender wage gaps for tertiary educated and high school educated full-time workers in Anglo-Saxon countries
13 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: asymmetric marriage premium, Australia, British economy, Canada, gender wage gap, Ireland, labour demographics, maternal labour supply
In another blow for the inherent inequality of bargaining power between workers and employers, and for the patriarchy, the wage gap is larger for tertiary educated female full-time workers aged 35-44 than it is for female full-time workers who just finished high school.
Figure 1: gender wage gap for mean full-time, full-year earnings for tertiary educated workers aged 35 – 44, 2012
Source: OECD family database.
To add insult to injury, the gender wage gap further tertiary educated female workers is quite large in the USA but quite small for high school graduates.
Figure 2: gender wage gap for mean full-time, full-year earnings for below upper secondary educated workers aged 35 – 44, 2012
Source: OECD family database.
Canada seems to be a bit of a patriarchal hellhole while New Zealand does pretty well in gender wage gaps.
The gender gap in figure 1 and in figure 2 are unadjusted and calculated as the difference between mean average annual full-time, full-year earnings of men and of women as a percentage of men’s earnings.
What are the Anglo-Saxon gender wage gaps for the bottom, median and top deciles?
12 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Australia, British economy, Canada, gender wage gap, Ireland
If there is an inherent inequality of bargaining power between workers and employers, as we are so frequently lectured by those in the self appointed know, why is the gender wage gap so small at the bottom of the earnings distribution?
Figure 1: % Gender gap in full-time earnings at the bottom decile of earnings distribution, 2012
Source: OECD family database
Figure 2: % Gender gap in full-time earnings at the median decile of earnings distribution, 2012
Source: OECD family database
Figure 3: % Gender gap in full-time earnings at the top decile of earnings distribution, 2012
Source: OECD family database
The gender gaps are unadjusted, and are calculated as the difference between the earnings of men and women for their respective earnings percentile.
What are the Anglo-Saxon gender wage gaps?
11 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Australia, British economy, Canada, gender wage gap, Ireland
Figure 1: % gender gap in median earnings of full-time employees, 2012
Source: OECD family database
The reversing gender gap in one chart
11 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap, lost boys, reversing gender gap
Gender gap in bachelor's is 6 percentage points. Men now where women were a decade ago.
nces.ed.gov/programs/diges… http://t.co/u9rAsIcfY0—
S Dynarski (@dynarski) June 01, 2015
Almost 8 in 10 daughters raised by the lowest- earning men make more money per hour than their fathers did
08 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: economic mobility, gender wage gap, reversing gender gap
Today’s daughters earn much more than their mothers
07 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: compensating differences, gender wage gap
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, slightly more than half of all mothers were in the labour force. These women worked, on average, 24 hours per week for a little more than $10 per hour.
Today, 85 percent of all daughters are employed, and they work 10 additional hours per week and earn $9 more per hour.
via Women’s Work: The Economic Mobility of Women Across a Generation.
Why did the top 1% only pick on men when they increased inequality over recent decades?
06 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, unions Tags: gender wage gap, middle class stagnation, reversing gender gap, superstar wages, superstars, top 1%, wage stagnation
Gender pay gap in corporate America twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew… http://t.co/AOFxcUQ8Rk—
Charts and Maps (@ChartsandMaps) April 12, 2015
The NYT must be slipping with "When Family-Friendly Policies Backfire”
27 May 2015 2 Comments
in discrimination, economics of regulation, gender, labour economics, occupational choice Tags: gender wage gap, maternity leave, offsetting behaviour, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge, unintended consequences
The best part of the article is its frank admission about how bare the cupboard is in dealing with the impact of generous maternity leave on the gender gap. Maternity leave should not be too generous, should not be paid by employers but by taxpayers, and should extend to both men and women.
Why is the gender gap so large and the glass ceiling so thick in Sweden?
14 May 2015 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of love and marriage, gender, human capital, labour economics, occupational choice, politics - USA Tags: asymmetric marriage premium, do gooders, economics of families, gender wage gap, maternity leave, Sweden, The fatal conceit, unintended consequences
The gender wage gap is no better than the OECD average, despite generous maternity and paternity leave. What gives?
America: one day a year celebrating mothers, fathers.
Sweden: 480 days paid leave per child. vox.com/2014/5/12/5708… http://t.co/weFDrTj7Jb—
Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) May 11, 2015
Source: Closing the gender gap: Act now – http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264179370-en
How big is the wage gap in your country? bit.ly/18o8icV #IWD2015 http://t.co/XTdntCRfDQ—
(@OECD) March 08, 2015
One important question is whether government policies are effective in reducing the gap. One such policy is family leave legislation designed to subsidize parents to stay home with new-born or newly adopted children.
One of the RLE articles shows that for high earners in Sweden there is a large difference between the wages earned by men and women (the so-called “glass ceiling”), which is present even before the first child is born. It increases after having children, even more so if parental leave taking is spread out.
These findings suggest that the availability of very long parental leave in Sweden may be responsible for the glass ceiling because of lower levels of human capital investment among women and employers’ responses by placing relatively few women in fast-track career positions. Thus, while this policy makes holding a job easier and more family-friendly, it may not be as effective as some might think in eradicating the gender gap.
via New volume on gender convergence in the labour market | IZA Newsroom.
Why is the gender wage gap so big in the public sector that the unions invoiced the government for it?
12 May 2015 1 Comment
in discrimination, gender, human capital, labour economics, politics - New Zealand, unions Tags: employer discrimination, gender wage gap, gender wage gap discrimination, government discrimination, New Zealand Greens, sex discrimination
The unions representing public servants and the Green Party are very excited about the gender wage gap this week. So much so that the public service union presented the Treasury with an invoice for that wage gap in the public sector of 14.1%.
Women in the public service are paid 14.1% less than men. We've invoiced @honbillenglish for the missing $294,827,136 http://t.co/QW5z4tU7bv—
(@NZPSA) May 11, 2015
Oddly enough, despite their concerns with the gender wage gap in the public service, the public service unions are stridently against both privatisation and contracting out.
It is almost trite to note is that one of the earliest analytical results in the labour economics of discrimination was that profit maximising employers are much less likely to discriminate than firms that are not subject to a profit and loss constraint and the discipline of bankruptcy.
A prejudiced employer pays a wage above the competitive wage to attract the particular recruits he or she is prejudiced in favour of and does not hire enough workers because he must pay higher wages. This results in lower output and profits than without discrimination.
@greencatherine Unadjusted NZ gender pay gap is 6%, the best in world. http://t.co/2fYuVbJg9E—
Jim Rose (@JimRose69872629) March 19, 2015
Bureaucrats can indulge their prejudices without putting the survival of their business in jeopardy. Entrepreneurs who don’t hire on merit risk running out of going out of business because their costs are hire and their businesses less productive.
…market mechanisms impose inescapable penalties on profits whenever for-profit enterprises discriminate against individuals on any basis other than productivity. Though bigoted managers may hold sway for a time, in the long run the profit penalty makes profit-seeking enterprises tenacious champions of fair treatment.
Early examples of the greater propensity for discrimination in the public sector and non-profit organisations are by Armen Alchian and Ruben Kessel in Competition, Monopoly, and the Pursuit of Money in 1962 and Gary Becker’s pioneering The Economics of Discrimination in 1957.
Women and Social Mobility – Key Facts
11 May 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - USA, population economics Tags: gender wage gap
How are today's baby boomer women faring compared to their #mothers? Check out these 6 facts: brook.gs/1J2Hq1l http://t.co/DMZG536cE3—
Brookings (@BrookingsInst) May 11, 2015
1. Today’s working women (henceforth described as “daughters”) have higher wages than their mothers – but do not have higher wages than their fathers. Men have higher wages than both their fathers and their mothers.
2. The poorest women are doing best. 80% of daughters raised in the bottom quintile have higher wages than their fathers did. (h/t Scott Winship)
3. “Men’s wages remain more important to increasing couples’ family income,” despite “women’s significant generational gains” …
4. Women who grew up in households where their mother did not work actually have the highest family incomes today—but not because they themselves earn more. Daughters’ individual incomes do not vary significantly by mother’s work status, but family income does—suggesting that daughters whose mothers didn’t work have higher earning husbands. (Catherine Rampell discovered this by asking Pew to split out their analyses by mothers’ labor choices.) Perhaps those raised in more traditional settings are more likely to replicate a traditional division of labor?
via via Women and Social Mobility: Six Key Facts | Brookings Institution.
Another gender gap that dare not mention its name
11 May 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, occupational choice Tags: educational attainment, gender wage gap, reversing gender gap
Prediction: No commencement speaker will mention the huge ‘degree gap’ favoring women. ow.ly/MCiAm http://t.co/kzzNagctAk—
(@AEI) May 06, 2015
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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