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Trends in the Male‐Female Wage Gap: The 1980s Compared with the 1970s
Author(s) -
Polachek Solomon W.,
Robst John
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
southern economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 2325-8012
pISSN - 0038-4038
DOI - 10.1002/j.2325-8012.2001.tb00378.x
Subject(s) - economics , wage , wage growth , labour economics , panel study of income dynamics , male female , gender gap , work (physics) , hourly wage , panel data , demographic economics , efficiency wage , engineering , mechanical engineering , econometrics
Despite a more rapid increase in female work behavior in the 1970s than in the 1980s, the male‐female wage gap in the 1970s narrowed one‐eighth as quickly as in the 1980s. This paper uses 1972 through 1988 Panel Study of Income Dynamics data to explain why women's wages rose less quickly in the 1970s. It illustrates how new female labor market entrants in the 1970s brought down mean female wages, thereby driving down female wage growth. This decline played itself out in the 1980s as the relative growth in female labor market entrants diminished and as the proportion of women's potential work years actually worked increased.