Do you get what you ask? The gender gap in desired and realised wages

Jaanika Meriküll and Pille Mõtsmees

No wp2014-9, Bank of Estonia Working Papers from Bank of Estonia

Abstract: This paper will study the gender wage gap in desired wages, realised wages and reservation wages. The notion of desired wages shows workers� first bet to potential employers during the job-search process. Two datasets are employed, the electronic job-search portal database, where individuals signal their desired wages, and the labour force survey, where realised wages and reservation wages are reported. The Oaxaca-Ransom decomposition is implemented to investigate the contribution of characteristics and coefficients to the gender gap. It is found that: (1) The unexplained gender wage gap is 22�25% in desired and realised wages. (2) The unexplained gender wage gap is much larger in desired wages than in reservation wages for unemployed individuals showing women�s higher disutility from unemployment. (3) Women�s lower desired wages are revised up rather than men�s higher desired wages being revised down on the job. The results suggest that women are more risk averse in wage bargaining and self-select into occupations and industries with stable employment

Keywords: gender wage gap; reservation wage; family, marriage and work; labour market mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 J13 J16 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-01-20, Revised 2015-01-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme and nep-lab
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Journal Article: Do you get what you ask? The gender gap in desired and realised wages (2017)
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