Gender Earnings Gap and Occupational Segregation
What factor accounts for more than half of the gender pay gap according to researchers? Is there evidence of causality, or is the relationship just correlational? How much of the gender pay gap is attributed to discrimination? What are noncognitive skills and how do they contribute to the gender pay gap? How does intra-marriage earnings inequality propagate the gender pay gap?
"A new study from researchers at Cornell University found that the difference between the occupations and industries in which men and women work has recently become the single largest cause of the gender pay gap, accounting for more than half of it." p. 2 The finding that pay declines as women enter a particular occupation in large numbers suggests causality. "After sifting through the data, Ms. Blau and Mr. Kahn concluded that pure discrimination may account for 38 percent of the gender pay gap. Discrimination could also indirectly cause an even larger portion of the pay gap, they said, for instance, by discouraging women from pursuing high-paying, male-dominated careers in the first place." p. 4 Noncognitive skills are human capital that do not involve conscious intellectual reasoning. "Men are often said to be more competitive and self-confident than women, and according to this logic, they might be more inclined to pursue highly competitive jobs. But Ms. Blau warned that it is impossible to separate nature from nurture. And there is evidence that noncognitive skills, like collaboration and openness to compromise, are benefiting women in today's labor market. Occupations that require such skills have expanded much more than others since 1980, according to research by David J. Deming at Harvard University. And women seem to have taken more advantage of these job opportunities than men." p. 4 Intra-marriage earnings inequality, which usually favors husbands, can propagate the gender pay gap because it means that men's careers will be prioritized in family decisions (e.g., choice of where to live), which could further compromise wives' earnings.
Briefly summarize the differences relevant for explaining the gender earnings gap between occupations in business, law, and pharmacy.
"Some occupations have high penalties for even small amounts of time out of the labor force and have nonlinear earnings with respect to hours worked. Other occupations, however, have small penalties for time out and almost linear earnings with respect to hours worked. In the first group of occupations are individuals who have earned an MBA or a JD. In the second group—the occupations with lower penalties for time out and the more linear ones—is one in the health sector (pharmacy)."
Discuss the nature of disappearing jobs and fast-growing jobs. What stops those in shrinking industries from moving to fast-growing industries? How do men fare in traditionally female industries? What is meant by "retrospective wait unemployment?"
"The jobs that have been disappearing, like machine operator, are predominantly those that men do. The occupations that are growing, like health aide, employ mostly women." p. 1 "When men take these so-called pink-collar jobs, they have more job security and wage growth than in blue-collar work, according to recent research. But they are paid less and feel stigmatized." p. 1 "[W]hen men, especially white men, enter female-dominated fields, they are paid more and promoted faster than women, a phenomenon known as the glass escalator." p. 4 "Many unemployed men who did manual labor say they can't take the time and make the effort to train for a new career because they have bills to pay. And they say they chose their original careers because they wanted to build things, not take care of people. Lawrence Katz, an economist at Harvard, has a term for this: "retrospective wait unemployment," or "looking for the job you used to have." "It's not a skill mismatch, but an identity mismatch," he said. "It's not that they couldn't become a health worker, it's that people have backward views of what their identity is."" p.5
In what area of finance are women dominating? How might women in this area effect change in the gender earnings gap more broadly?
"Women hold the top positions in corporate governance at many of the biggest mutual funds and pension funds — deciding which way to vote on the directors of a company board. They make decisions on behalf of teachers, government workers, doctors and most people in the United States who have a 401(k). The corporate governance heads at seven of the 10 largest institutional investors in stocks are now women, according to data compiled by The New York Times. Those investors oversee $14 trillion in assets." pp. 1-2 Heads of corporate governance can weigh in on management structure, pay structure, and board appointments. They can call attention to any practices that disadvantage women and aim to propose remedies.
According to Goldin, what is necessary for the last chapter of economic gender-convergence to take place?
"[I]t must involve alterations in the labor market, in particular changing how jobs are structured and remunerated to enhance temporal flexibility. The gender gap in pay would be considerably reduced and might even vanish if firms did not have an incentive to disproportionately reward individuals who worked long hours and who worked particular hours."
In determining the gender earnings gap, are within-occupation or across-occupation differences more important? Which occupation has the highest penalty for being a woman? What is Goldin's explanation for this penalty?
"[T]he majority of the current earnings gap comes from within occupation differences in earnings rather than from between occupation differences." p. 1097 Business has the highest penalty for being a woman. Goldin explains that business occupations have low flexibility. That is, workers are under time pressure, have to be working or available to work at particular times, cannot schedule their work flexibly, must keep in touch with a large group or other workers, and do not have close substitutes who can fill in for them.
What are examples of high-status professions that are male-dominated? Female dominated? Discuss the role of race in recent occupational-segregation shifts.
Examples given of high-status professions that are male-dominated are supervisors of scientists, podiatrists, and chief executives. Examples given of "higher-status" professions that are female-dominated are high school teachers and nurses. "Even as women moved into men's jobs, in fields like medicine, law and business, men did not flock to the lower-status jobs that women mostly did. That's changing. Over the last 15 years, according to a new study, men have been as likely to move into predominantly female jobs as the other way around — but not all men. It's those who are already disadvantaged in the labor market: black, Hispanic, less educated, poor and immigrant men. While work done by women continues to be valued less, the study demonstrates, job opportunities divide not just along gender lines but also by race and class." p. 1
How did fertility change across the three Harvard cohorts of women, as measured fifteen years after class graduation? Pursuit of professional degrees?
Fertility stayed constant even though marriage rates decreased, and even though marriage was continually delayed by each cohort. WOmen's entry into professions increased, and increase in MBA's and slight decrease in med school and doctorate
Describe in a sentence what Figure 1 shows. (In GOLDIN article)
Figure 1A shows that, across birth cohorts, the ratio of female to male earnings for white YRFT workers is at its highest at young ages, steadily declines until roughly age 45, and slightly increases thereafter; Figure 1B shows that this same pattern holds when we compare men and women with equal years of education and number of work hours and weeks per year.
How did children affect men's and women's earnings? How does the earnings penalty women experience from taking time off work differ by graduate degree status?
Male earnings are strongly and positively related to the number of children in the family, whereas female earnings are negatively related, especially for those having three or more. But the negative impact of children on women's earnings is entirely accounted for by hours worked. A positive relationship between children and earnings exists for women working full-time full-year, suggesting higher reservation wages for those with more children and positive selection into the labor force based on numbers of children. Among those who obtained one of the professional degrees or earned a doctorate, the smallest earnings penalty was for physicians and other medical professionals. Next in penalty size was that for those with a JD or a PhD. The largest earnings penalty for time off was for those with an MBA.
How did the median earnings differ by gender for full-time, full-year workers? What controls are included in the analysis of the earnings gap?
There is a large gap in median earnings for full-time, full-year workers by gender; women earn $112.5K per year, while men earn $187.5K per year. The analysis includes controls for educational performance, time out of work and occupation. Specifically, it controls for weeks and hours worked, college major, graduate degrees, non-educational time out of work, and occupation. As the analysis controls for more of these variables, the earnings gap between genders is reduced. However, even with these controls, there is still a substantial gap.
How does exit from the labor force make the unemployment rate deceptively low? How do the reasons that men and women exit the labor force differ? How does one gender's decision to exit the labor force impact the other's? What are some ways those who have exited the labor force get by?
Those who decide to exit the labor market are not included in the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate divides the number of those willing to but unable to find work by the number of people willing to work. Exiting the labor force means that one is unwilling to work and is not counted in the denominator. Reasons given for men exiting the labor force: • occupational mismatches between skills and available jobs o decline in manufacturing, construction, and mining jobs • opioid addiction • imprisonment • disability • video games Women: • familial caregiving responsibilities
