Changes in the US Gender Gap in Wages in the 1960s

Martha Bailey, Thomas Helgerman and Bryan Stuart

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2021, vol. 111, 143-48

Abstract: The 1960s witnessed landmark legislation that aimed to increase women's wages, including the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and the 1966 amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act. Although the gender gap in pay changed little at the mean/median during the decade, our distributional analysis shows that women's wages converged sharply on men's below but diverged above the median. However, the bulk of women's relative pay gains are not explained by changes in observed attributes. Our findings suggest an important role for legislation in narrowing the gender gap in the 1960s.

JEL-codes: D63 J16 J71 K31 N32 N42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20211020

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