IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecorec/v97y2021i318p365-386.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Evolving Wage Structure of Young Adults in Australia: 2001 to 2019

Author

Listed:
  • Elisa R. Birch
  • Alison C. Preston

Abstract

Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey together with OLS and quantile regressions, this paper examines the changing returns to education and the evolving wage structure of young adults (aged 25–34 years) between 2001 and 2019. Estimates show that real wage growth was strong for both males and females over the 2000s, underpinned by wage structure effects. Between 2010/11 and 2018/19 wage growth was flat (zero) for males and subdued for females. Institutional factors are thought to underpin the growth in wages of low‐paid females over recent years, while education investments underpin recent wage growth amongst high‐paid females. Since 2001/2 the wage premium on a degree qualification has declined for males and females. There has been no change in the adjusted gender wage gap across successive cohorts of 25–34 year olds.

Suggested Citation

  • Elisa R. Birch & Alison C. Preston, 2021. "The Evolving Wage Structure of Young Adults in Australia: 2001 to 2019," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 97(318), pages 365-386, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecorec:v:97:y:2021:i:318:p:365-386
    DOI: 10.1111/1475-4932.12611
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-4932.12611
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1475-4932.12611?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ian Walker & Yu Zhu, 2008. "The College Wage Premium and the Expansion of Higher Education in the UK," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 110(4), pages 695-709, December.
    2. Leigh, Andrew & Ryan, Chris, 2008. "Estimating returns to education using different natural experiment techniques," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 149-160, April.
    3. Mincer, Jacob & Polachek, Solomon, 1974. "Family Investment in Human Capital: Earnings of Women," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(2), pages 76-108, Part II, .
    4. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2017. "The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(3), pages 789-865, September.
    6. Phil Lewis & Michael Corliss & Anne Daly, 2013. "The Rate of Return to Higher Education Over the Business Cycle," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 16(2), pages 219-236.
    7. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1.
    8. Alan S. Blinder, 1973. "Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(4), pages 436-455.
    9. Michael Coelli & Roger Wilkins, 2009. "Credential Changes and Education Earnings Premia in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 85(270), pages 239-259, September.
    10. Fersterer, Josef & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2003. "Are Austrian returns to education falling over time?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 73-89, February.
    11. Koshy, Paul & Seymour, Richard & Dockery, Mike, 2016. "Are there institutional differences in the earnings of Australian higher education graduates?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 1-11.
    12. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. David Carroll & Chris Heaton & Massimiliano Tani, 2019. "Does It Pay to Graduate from an 'Elite' University in Australia?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 95(310), pages 343-357, September.
    14. Anne Elizabeth Daly & Philip E. T. Lewis, 2010. "The Private Rate of Return to an Economics Degree: An Update," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 29(3), pages 353-364, September.
    15. Michael Kidd & Michael Shannon, 2001. "Convergence in the gender wage gap in Australia over the 1980s: identifying the role of counteracting forces via the Juhn, Murphy and Pierce Decomposition," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(7), pages 929-936.
    16. Garry F. Barrett, 2012. "The Return to Cognitive Skills in the Australian Labour Market," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 88(280), pages 1-17, March.
    17. Jill Rubery, 1997. "Wages and the Labour Market," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 35(3), pages 337-366, September.
    18. Ben Jann, 2008. "The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition for linear regression models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 8(4), pages 453-479, December.
    19. Nicole M. Fortin, 2008. "The Gender Wage Gap among Young Adults in the United States: The Importance of Money versus People," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(4).
    20. Phil Lewis & Anne Daly, 2020. "The Proposed Job-ready Graduate Package: a misguided arrow missing its target," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 23(2), pages 231-251.
    21. Sergio P. Firpo & Nicole M. Fortin & Thomas Lemieux, 2018. "Decomposing Wage Distributions Using Recentered Influence Function Regressions," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-40, May.
    22. Alison J. Wellington, 1993. "Changes in the Male/Female Wage Gap, 1976-85," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(2), pages 383-411.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Islam, Asif M. & Amin, Mohammad, 2023. "The gender labor productivity gap across informal firms," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Elisa Birch & Alison Preston, 2021. "Women, COVID-19 and Superannuation," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 24(2), pages 175-198.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhang, Li & Sharpe, Rhonda Vonshay & Li, Shi & Darity, William A., 2016. "Wage differentials between urban and rural-urban migrant workers in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 222-233.
    2. Günalp, Burak & Cilasun, Seyit Mümin & Acar, Elif Öznur, 2013. "Male-Female Labor Market Participation and the Extent of Gender-Based Wage Discrimination in Turkey," MPRA Paper 51503, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Ebo Botchway & Kofi Fred Asiedu, 2020. "Ownership type and earnings gap decomposition: Evidence from the Ghanaian labor market," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 32(4), pages 619-631, December.
    4. Mustafizur Rahman & Marzuka Md. Al-Hasan, 2019. "Women in Bangladesh Labour Market: Determinants of Participation, Gender Wage Gap and Returns to Schooling," CPD Working Paper 124, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
    5. Busch, Anne & Holst, Elke, 2013. "Geschlechtsspezifische Verdienstunterschiede bei Führungskräften und sonstigen Angestellten in Deutschland: Welche Relevanz hat der Frauenanteil im Beruf?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 42(4), pages 315-336.
    6. Boll Christina & Rossen Anja & Wolf André, 2017. "The EU Gender Earnings Gap: Job Segregation and Working Time as Driving Factors," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 237(5), pages 407-452, October.
    7. Jacqueline Mosomi, 2019. "Distributional changes in the gender wage gap in the post-apartheid South African labour market," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-17, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Brieland, Stephanie & Töpfer, Marina, 2020. "The gender pay gap revisited: Does machine learning offer new insights?," Discussion Papers 111, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    9. Avinno Faruk, 2021. "Analysing the glass ceiling and sticky floor effects in Bangladesh: evidence, extent and elements," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(9), pages 1-23, September.
    10. Günalp, Burak & Cilasun, Seyit Mümin & Acar, Elif Öznur, 2013. "Male-Female Labor Market Participation and the Extent of Gender-Based Wage Discrimination in Turkey," MPRA Paper 51503, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Michaela Fuchs & Anja Rossen & Antje Weyh & Gabriele Wydra‐Somaggio, 2021. "Where do women earn more than men? Explaining regional differences in the gender pay gap," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 1065-1086, November.
    12. Alison Preston, 1997. "Where Are We Now With Human Capital Theory in Australia?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 73(220), pages 51-78, March.
    13. Aleksandra Anić & Gorana Krstić, 2019. "What Lies Behind The Gender Wage Gap In Serbia?," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 64(223), pages 137-170, October –.
    14. Zuzana Brixiová Schwidrowski & Susumu Imai & Thierry Kangoye & Nadege Desiree Yameogo, 2021. "Assessing gender gaps in employment and earnings in Africa: The case of Eswatini," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(4), pages 643-663, July.
    15. Garcia-Aracil, Adela & Winter, Carolyn, 2006. "Gender and ethnicity differentials in school attainment and labor market earnings in Ecuador," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 289-307, February.
    16. M. Ángeles Díaz & Rosario Sánchez, 2013. "Young Workers, Marital Status And Wage Gap," Revista de Economia Aplicada, Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Estructura Economica y Economia Publica, vol. 21(1), pages 57-70, Spring.
    17. Domenico Depalo & Raffaela Giordano & Evangelia Papapetrou, 2015. "Public–private wage differentials in euro-area countries: evidence from quantile decomposition analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 985-1015, November.
    18. Fuchs, Michaela & Rossen, Anja & Weyh, Antje & Wydra-Somaggio, Gabriele, 2019. "Why do women earn more than men in some regions? : Explaining regional differences in the gender pay gap in Germany," IAB-Discussion Paper 201911, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    19. Aleksandra Majchrowska & Paweł Strawiński & Karolina Konopczak & Agnieszka Skierska, 2014. "Why are women paid less than men? An investigation into gender wage gap in Poland," Working Papers 2014-31, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    20. Tim Leunig & Maria Stanfors, 2010. "Piece-rates and prosperity: evidence from the late nineteenth-century tobacco industry," Working Papers 10003, Economic History Society.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecorec:v:97:y:2021:i:318:p:365-386. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esausea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.