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The Impact of Labor Market Structure on Sex Differences in Earnings
Author(s) -
Langton Nancy,
Konrad Alison M.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
gender, work and organization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.159
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1468-0432
pISSN - 0968-6673
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0432.00048
Subject(s) - earnings , salary , differential (mechanical device) , wage , affect (linguistics) , labour economics , economics , embeddedness , demographic economics , market economy , psychology , accounting , sociology , anthropology , engineering , aerospace engineering , communication
This research examines how structural features of a labor market affect the size of the male‐female earnings differential in that market. Theoretical predictions are tested using data on the earnings of male and female academics in the US. Measures of labor market structure are shown to be significantly associated with the size of the earnings differential in 56 labor markets corresponding to specific academic disciplines. As predicted, an oversupply of labor within a market and greater career embeddedness in a single organization within a market increased the size of the earnings gap between men and women. Contrary to predictions, greater flows of information in the market and market permeability had no impact on the size of the earnings differential within markets. In addition, higher percentages of women in the market decreased the wage differential within markets. Additional analysis at the individual level found that men were penalized less than women when labor market conditions led to lower wages. Findings generally support the theoretical position that structural characteristics of the labor market affect the ability of employers to engage in salary discrimination against women.