Volume 26, Number 3 (Summer) 1991
Groshen, Erica L. 1991. "The Structure of the Female/Male Wage Differential: Is it Who You Are, What You Do, or Where You Work?" Journal of Human Resources 26(3):457-472.
The efficacy of policies to narrow the male/female wage differential depends partly on the size of the portion(s) of the gap targeted. Previous research finds no between-sex wage gap within occupations within employer (job-cell). This is the first study to disentangle segregation by occupation from that based on employer or on job-cell. In five industries, controlling for other forms of segregation, occupational segregation produces a gap of 11 percent (manufacturing) to 26 percent (services). The wage gaps from establishment and job-cell segregation are about 6 percent each. Since comparable worth acts on the occupation and job-cell components, it has a potentially large impact.
Erica L Groshen is an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. The author thanks professor Richard B. Freeman and John T. Dunlop for help in obtaining these data, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics for providing access to them. Paula Loboda provided invaluable research assistance. Comments from Paul Bauer, Patricia Beeson, Francine Blau, John Bound, Charles Brown, Randall Eberts, Joe Stone, participants at the 1988 NBER Summer Institute in Labor Studies, and three anonymous referees are gratefully acknowledged.
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