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About time: The narrowing gender wage gap in Austria

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  • René Böheim
  • Marian Fink
  • Christine Zulehner

Abstract

We examine the gender wage gap in Austria from 2005 to 2017 using data from EU-SILC. The raw wage gap declined from 18.6 log points in 2005 to 14.9 log points in 2017. We use standard decomposition techniques that correct for differences in the distributions of human capital, and other variables, between men and women. All calculated decompositions indicate that the unexplained part of the gender wage gap decreased substantially over the last ten years. The decrease of the unexplained gender wage gap between the largest gap in this period (2006) and the most recent gap (2017) ranges from 3.7 log points to 8.5 log points depending on the decomposition approach. Using the approach developed by Neumark (1988), the corrected wage gap shrank from 8.7 (8.8) log points in 2005 (2006) to 5.1 log points in 2017. The main reason for the decline in wage differences is the relative improvement of women's observed and unobserved characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • René Böheim & Marian Fink & Christine Zulehner, 2019. "About time: The narrowing gender wage gap in Austria," Economics working papers 2019-18, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    • Handle: RePEc:jku:econwp:2019_18
    Note: English
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    Cited by:

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    3. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Johanna Posch & Andreas Steinhauser & Josef Zweimüller, 2021. "Angebot an öffentlicher Kinderbetreuung und Einkommenseinbußen bei Mutterschaft," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 47(3), pages 309-328.
    4. Julia Bock-Schappelwein & Ulrike Famira-Mühlberger, 2020. "Ökonomische Folgen von Schulschließungen," WIFO Research Briefs 18, WIFO.
    5. Bennedsen, Morten & Larsen, Birthe & Wei, Jiayi, 2022. "Wage Transparency and the Gender Pay Gap: A Survey," Working Papers 17-2022, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics.
    6. Koral Zeynep Aktaş & Mercan Murat Anıl, 2021. "Assessing the gender wage gap: Turkey in the years 2002–2019," Economics and Business Review, Sciendo, vol. 7(1), pages 90-112, March.
    7. Bamieh, Omar & Ziegler, Lennart, 2022. "Can Wage Transparency Alleviate Gender Sorting in the Labor Market?," IZA Discussion Papers 15363, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Thomas Url & Serguei Kaniovski, 2022. "Die Auswirkung einer längeren Erwerbskarriere auf das Pensionseinkommen," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 69656.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender wage differentials; wage inequality; decomposition; EU-SILC;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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