Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/50155 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
ESRI Working Paper No. 321
Publisher: 
The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), Dublin
Abstract: 
This paper provides a sub-sectoral analysis of changes in the public-private sector pay gap in Ireland between 2003 and 2006. We find that between March 2003 and October 2006 the public sector pay premium increased from 14 to 26 per cent and that there was substantial variation between subsectors of the public service. Within the public service the premium in 2006 was highest in Education and Security Services and lowest in the Civil Service and Local Authorities. In the private sector the pay penalty in 2006, relative to the public sector, was most severe in Hotels & Restaurants and in Wholesale & Retail and least severe in Financial Intermediation and Construction. The paper tests for the sensitivity of the pay gap estimates using a matching framework, which provides a stronger emphasis on job content, and finds the results to be broadly comparable to OLS. Finally, the study highlights the problems associated with controlling for organisational size in any study of the public-private pay gap in Ireland.
Subjects: 
public-private sector pay gap
sub-sectoral analysis
employer-employee linked data
propensity score matching
Ireland
JEL: 
J31
J38
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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