Pay gaps and outside wages: The U.S. gender wage gap 1980-2010

Chris Bidner and Ben Sand

No 82, CLEF Working Paper Series from Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo

Abstract: We consider the role of differences in outside wages-the wages earned by similar workers in other jobs-in shaping pay differentials, focusing on the gender dimension in the U.S. during 1980-2010. Using instruments that exploit differential exposure to common industry wage shocks, we find a substantial role for outside wages. Differences in outside wages account for one-half of the level of, and trends in, the unexplained gender wage gap. Our results offer a reinterpretation of trends in the gender wage gap, and suggest that standard wage decompositions are systematically misleading.

Keywords: Wage structure; Gender discrimination; Labor; USA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen
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