Equal Pay for Better Health: The Health Cost of the Gender Wage Gap

Susan L. Averett (), Adam Biener and Olena Ogrokhina ()
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Susan L. Averett: Lafayette College
Olena Ogrokhina: Lafayette College

No 17277, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper explores the relationship between gender wage gaps and women's overall health. Using data from the 2011-2019 Current Population Survey, we employ entropy balancing to create comparable samples of men and women and estimate wage gaps for full-time employed working-age women. Adjusting for individual, occupation, and industry characteristics, we estimate the association between wage gaps and self-rated health. Our results suggest that closing the wage gap results in a 1.2 percent reduction in women reporting poor or fair health, equivalent to nearly 170,000 fewer women. These effects are more pronounced for women with below-median wages or in male-dominated jobs.

Keywords: wage gap; health; women (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F02 F34 F41 G15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2024-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen
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