Occupational differences and the Australian gender wage gap

Abstract

There are conflicting findings in the literature about whether occupational differences contribute to the Australian gender wage gap. Most papers conclude that they do not, while two papers conclude that they can explain a sizeable amount of the gap. These papers use different estimation methods and levels of occupational aggregation. I show that constructing decompositions using much more disaggregated occupational categories than those used in previous Australian research yield large positive contributions of occupational differences to the gap. Differences in estimation method (particularly regarding the inclusion or otherwise of industry indicators) also affect estimates. © 2014 The Univ..