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  4. September 2017
  5. The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations

Journal of Economic Literature

ISSN 0022-0515 (Print) | ISSN 2328-8175 (Online)

The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations

  • Francine D. Blau
  • Lawrence M. Kahn
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 55, no. 3, September 2017
(pp. 789–865)
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Abstract

Using Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) microdata over the 1980-2010 period, we provide new empirical evidence on the extent of and trends in the gender wage gap, which declined considerably during this time. By 2010, conventional human capital variables taken together explained little of the gender wage gap, while gender differences in occupation and industry continued to be important. Moreover, the gender pay gap declined much more slowly at the top of the wage distribution than at the middle or bottom and by 2010 was noticeably higher at the top. We then survey the literature to identify what has been learned about the explanations for the gap. We conclude that many of the traditional explanations continue to have salience. Although human-capital factors are now relatively unimportant in the aggregate, women's work force interruptions and shorter hours remain significant in high-skilled occupations, possibly due to compensating differentials. Gender differences in occupations and industries, as well as differences in gender roles and the gender division of labor remain important, and research based on experimental evidence strongly suggests that discrimination cannot be discounted. Psychological attributes or noncognitive skills comprise one of the newer explanations for gender differences in outcomes. Our effort to assess the quantitative evidence on the importance of these factors suggests that they account for a small to moderate portion of the gender pay gap, considerably smaller than, say, occupation and industry effects, though they appear to modestly contribute to these differences.

Citation

Blau, Francine D., and Lawrence M. Kahn. 2017. "The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations." Journal of Economic Literature, 55 (3): 789–865. DOI: 10.1257/jel.20160995

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • I26 Returns to Education
  • J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
  • J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
  • J31 Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
  • J71 Labor Discrimination