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.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 983-1024 |
Number of pages | 42 |
Journal | The Economic Journal |
Volume | 118 |
Issue number | 530 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2008 |
Bibliographical note
M1 - 530Keywords
- JOB MOBILITY
- LABOR-MARKET
- LIFE-CYCLE
- EARNINGS
- WOMEN
- MEN
- PAY
- DIFFERENTIALS
- UNEMPLOYMENT
- DISPLACEMENT