How Discrimination Against Female Workers Is Hidden in U.S. Industry Statistics: Sex Differences in Wages in the Cotton Textile and Boot and Shoe Industries Between the World Wars

Albert W. Niemi

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 1989, vol. 48, issue 4, 401-414

Abstract: Abstract. The conclusion that the male‐female earnings gap largely reflects sex differences in occupational structure is widely accepted, This conventional wisdom is challenged by examining intraoccupational male‐female wage differences in two leading manufacturing industries, cotton textiles and boots and shoes, for the 1920s and 1930s. The results show little evidence of sex differences in wage rates in particular occupations in the cotton textile industry. The piece wage system protected the wages of female workers and kept intraoccupational wage differences between the sexes within narrow limits. In contrast, the evidence points to sharp sex differentials in occupational wage rates in the boot and shoe industry. In this industry, piece wages in the different occupations varied directly with the price of the shoes. By assigning work on low quality shoes to females employers were able to practice wage discrimination against them.

Date: 1989
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