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The Gender Wage Gap over the Life Cycle: Evidence from Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Jau-er Chen

    (Senshu University, Tokyo, Japan)

  • Minchung Hsu

    (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan)

  • Tomoe Naito

    (Seikei University, Tokyo, Japan)

Abstract

The gender wage gap is a persistent and pervasive issue that has received significant attention from economists, policymakers, and the general public. Despite efforts to close the gap, it remains a challenge to quantify and understand the sources of this disparity. In this paper, we aim to shed light on the gender wage gap over the life cycle, using data from the Basic Survey on Wage Structure (BSWS) in Japan. This data provides rich information on the wages of employees and offers a unique opportunity to examine the pattern of the gender wage gap across different age groups. The findings indicate that the wage gap widens significantly with age and is most pronounced among highly educated individuals. These results align with Goldin et al. (2017)’s research. Additionally, our study reveals that the gap for high-education worker lessens when controlling for managerlevel positions, suggesting that a significant portion of the wage gap for the high-education can be ascribed to the under-representation of women in these roles. Our quantile analysis also demonstrates that the growing wage.

Suggested Citation

  • Jau-er Chen & Minchung Hsu & Tomoe Naito, 2024. "The Gender Wage Gap over the Life Cycle: Evidence from Japan," GRIPS Discussion Papers 23-13, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:ngi:dpaper:23-13
    as

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    File URL: https://grips.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/2000052/files/DP23-13.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Keywords

    Life-cycle earnings; Gender earnings gap; Japan;
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