The differential is large: on average, women earn only 60 percent as much as men. (Editor)

The most important reason for the difference in the average pay of men and women is the clustering of women in lower paying jobs. (Author)

In the last 20 years, an increase in the number of working women has been accompanied by changes in the female labor force and in the concentration of women in particular occupations and industries. These changes have a profound effect upon women's earnings. The Current Population Survey (CPS) shows a wide disparity in the median earnings of women…

Efforts to shift women from welfare into the labor market will not necessarily move women out of poverty because the wages they are likely to earn are so low. According to research tracking Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients over a 2-year period, 43% of AFDC recipients combine welfare with a substantial amount of paid…

Since 1979, the wage gap between women and men has narrowed significantly, falling by more than 10 percent overall. The closing of the wage gap has slowed considerably in the 1990's, however, with women's real wages (adjusted for inflation) stagnating in recent year and men's wages continuing to decline. The lack of growth in both women's and…

Despite the great influx of women into the labor market, the gap between men's and women's wages has remained stable at 40 percent since 1950. Analysis of labor data suggests that this has occurred because women's educational attainment compared to men has declined. Recently, however, the wage gap has begun to narrow, and this will probably become…

Women have made slow, steady progress in the labor market since 1979, but the wage gap has not narrowed significantly. This briefing paper updates a September 1987 paper based on "Male-Female Differences in Work Experience, Occupations, and Earnings: 1984" (Current Population Reports, Household Economic Studies, Series P-70, No. 10, issued in…

A study used data from the 1998 Current Population Survey to document job growth in the public and private sectors and examine the quality of jobs in terms of wages and benefits. Findings indicated public sector employment declined for both women and men during the period from 1979-98 with a somewhat sharper decline among men. In 1998, median…

This study is a cross-section regression analysis of male-female wage differentials in urban labor markets. Data for the study were obtained from the 1967 Survey of Economic Opportunity. A prime objective of this dissertation is to determine how much of the observed male-female wage differential can be attributed to the effects of discrimination…

Discusses how gender differences in the value of pay, based on relative deprivation theory, explain women's paradoxical contentment with lower wages. Presents a model of pay satisfaction to integrate value-based and comparative-referent explanations of the relationship between gender and pay satisfaction. Discusses economic approaches to the…

Models of aggregate production are estimated and used to investigate the effects of changes in labor force composition on the recently observed decline in the earnings of college graduates relative to other workers and on the fall in the earnings of younger workers relative to older workers. (Author/SSH)

Application of single and simultaneous equation fixed-effects and random-effects shows that earnings appreciation with experience and depreciation with labor market interruptions are comparable for men and women. Adjusting for heterogeneity reduces the wage gap to 20%; adjusting for endogeneity reduces it nearly to zero. (SK)

In trying to determine race and sex differences in earnings, some chapters in this volume examine the hypothesis that earnings differences are caused by skill differences. Findings indicate that skill differences cannot account for much of the earnings differences. Education levels required by various jobs are analyzed and compared to the actual…

Industrial sectors and authority hierarchies are examined as an explanation for women's lower earnings compared with men's. Sectoral location and authority position are found to have independent additive effects on earnings; these effects, however, differ by sex. Women are more likely to achieve higher authority positions within the peripheral…

A study examined starting and current salaries of exempt employees between 1976 and 1986 by a large private firm. Women's salary disadvantage could be traced largely to their salary differential at the time they were hired. (Author)