Paige Hehl, UW Eau Claire Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Schaffer

Previous Research Some economic researchers have concluded that gender discrimination in the U.S. is essentially gone. Schaffer’s previous research suggested otherwise. Our research using a different set of statistical techniques and an enormous database supports the idea of continuing discrimination against women in the labor market.

Data  Data was obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS) for the years (  We have approximately 60,000 observations for each year.  Used Stata 10 & 11

Oaxaca Decomposition  Regression of wage rate onto years of schooling and potential experience: Differential due to Discrimination Differential due to differences in human capital

Method 1: Extending Oaxaca  Decomposing further to obtain differential due to gender segregation  We used three types of occupations  A: Occupations with less than 30% female workers  B: Occupations with 30-70% female workers  C: Occupations with more than 70% female  Actual wage gap calculated as A∆= ∑[(N iM /N M )lnW iM – (N iF /N F )lnW iF ]

 A∆= H+D+S  H= differential due to differences in human capital  D= differential due to discrimination  S= differential due to gender segregation H= ∑ β iM (X iM – X iF ) (N i /N) D= ∑(β iM -β iF )X iF (N i /N) S= ∑ {[(N iM /N M )-(N i /N)]lnW iM – [(N iF /N F )-(N i /N)]lnW iF } Need program for more categories

Results from Decomposing  1971  A∆= (actual logwage gap)  H=  D=  S= S is about 13.8% of A∆  2002  A∆= (actual logwage gap)  H=  D=  S= S is about 23.1% of A∆

Method 2:Regression Analysis with Additional Variables  Regressed certain variables against the natural log of wages  Used years of education, potential experience, fraction-female, average occupation education, and others  Restricted the wages between $2 - $200 (an hour) to eliminate some of the variance  Used weighted averages

Additional Variables  500 occupation categories determined by the Census Bureau  Fraction-female (within each occupation)  Average education (within each occupation) Fraction-Female Coefficients 2006 Fraction FemaleMalesFemales

Interpretations  Types of Discrimination  Pure Discrimination  Gender Segregation Penalty  It has always been the case that wages decrease as you move to a more female job  The size of the wage gap has increased over time  Jobs have become less segregated, but the wage penalty has gotten larger for being in the more female segregated jobs.

Citations  Borjas, George. Labor Economics. 5th. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, Print.  Fluckiger, Yves, and Jacques Silber. The Measurement of Segregation in the Labor Force. Germany: Physica-Verlag Heidelberg, Print.