Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/21330 
Year of Publication: 
2005
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 1554
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
In most OECD countries the wage gap between men and women has declined during the past two decades. Developments of the last 20 years, e.g. increased labour market attachment of women, changes in the bargaining structure, and the introduction of equal pay laws, may have reduced the gender wage gap. We investigate the extent, persistence, and socio-economic determinants of the gender wage gap in Austria, for the years 1983 and 1997. Using wage decomposition techniques, we find that the average gender wage gap was almost as high in 1997 as it was in 1983. Not accounting for differences, the gender wage gap dropped from 25.5 to 23.3 per cent. Taking observable differences between men and women into account, we estimate that the mean gender wage gap which cannot be explained, i.e. discrimination against women, dropped from 18 to 15.5 per cent of men?s wages. The drop in discrimination is the main reason for the narrowing of the gender wage gap.
Subjects: 
wage differentials
wage inequality
decomposition
JEL: 
J71
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
432.7 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.