The gender gap in early-career wage growth

Alan Manning, Joanna Swaffield

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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 languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)983-1024
Number of pages42
JournalThe Economic Journal
Volume118
Issue number530
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2008

Bibliographical note

M1 - 530

Keywords

  • JOB MOBILITY
  • LABOR-MARKET
  • LIFE-CYCLE
  • EARNINGS
  • WOMEN
  • MEN
  • PAY
  • DIFFERENTIALS
  • UNEMPLOYMENT
  • DISPLACEMENT

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