The objective of this essay is to investigate how attitudes towards equality between men and women affect the gender wage gap. The essay studies how positive and negative attitudes on gender equality affects the gender income gap. This study investigates this by using data of the mean yearly incomes from 290 municipalities in Sweden during the years 2000-2008. Additionally, using a survey conducted by the SOM-institute at the Gothenburg university to measure attitudes towards gender equality. The results indicate that positive attitudes towards gender equality had a decreasing effect on the gender wage gap. A conclusion from this essay is that a more egalitarian attitude contributes to a decrease in the existing gender wage gap.

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Though successively decreasing over time, gender wage gaps are still large in all western countries. When gender wage gaps exist, there is an unequal distribution of economic power between men and women. This paper examines variables that significantly relate to the differences in the size of the gender wage gap across Swedish municipalities. With data gathered from Statistics Sweden and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency for the year 2011, a series of OLS regressions are performed. By examining what variables are statistically related to variations in the gender wage gap over municipalities, for example, average wage, human capital, gender segregation and work absence, the aim is to further contribute to the field of gender economics. The results in this paper show that the gender wage gap exists in all 290 Swedish municipalities. It varies greatly with women earning only 56 percent of men’s wages in Danderyd to women earning 87 percent of men’s wages in Haparanda. In municipalities where average wages are high the gender wage gap is large. Long-term illness and lowered capacity to work are strong factors negatively affecting the gender wage gap. In municipalities where women are more affected by long-term illness and lowered capacity to work than men the gender wage gap is larger. Furthermore, there is a significant relation between the gender wage gap and human capital. The gender wage gap is larger in municipalities where a large share of the population has a higher education.

Introduction: From a legal point of view, gender-based discrimination is not condoned in the workplace. However, perceptions that such discrimination exists persist. Understanding the extent and nature of the phenomenon may contribute to the management thereof. Aim: The aim of this research was to report on the nature and level of workplace gender-based discrimination from the perspective of managers and employees, as well as by making use of objective measures. Method: Interviews were conducted with 75 managers focusing on the prevalence of gender-based discrimination in specific organisational processes. Furthermore, 145 managers and 1 740 employees completed questionnaires on this topic. Results: Managers reported flaws in all the organisational processes investigated. According to these managers, some processes showed a pro-female bias whilst others displayed a pro-male bias. More female than male employees reported discriminatory incidents at work, but both groups reported gender-based discrimination. Gender-based discrimination was the most prominent form of discrimination reported by women. Some female respondents reported pro-male and others pro-female discrimination. The same pattern applied to men. No statistically significant gender wage gap was found and the salaries of males and females were not differentially affected by qualifications, training, workplace experience or family responsibility. Managers and employees concurred that gender-based discrimination was the primary source of discrimination in the workplace, and they reported similarly on the consequences of this problem. Conclusions and recommendations: Managers are aware of discrimination in organisational processes. This awareness can be used to initiate programmes aimed at minimising discrimination. Both males and females are exposed to gender-based discrimination and they report similar consequences. This suggests that interventions should be directed at both groups. The different, and often opposing, reports provided by the male and female groups support the social identity theory and conceptions of group-serving bias. From the objective data it can be concluded that perceptions of being discriminated against are the result of psycho-social processes and not necessarily the result of justifiable biographical differences. / PhD (Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Introduction: From a legal point of view, gender-based discrimination is not condoned in the workplace. However, perceptions that such discrimination exists persist. Understanding the extent and nature of the phenomenon may contribute to the management thereof. Aim: The aim of this research was to report on the nature and level of workplace gender-based discrimination from the perspective of managers and employees, as well as by making use of objective measures. Method: Interviews were conducted with 75 managers focusing on the prevalence of gender-based discrimination in specific organisational processes. Furthermore, 145 managers and 1 740 employees completed questionnaires on this topic. Results: Managers reported flaws in all the organisational processes investigated. According to these managers, some processes showed a pro-female bias whilst others displayed a pro-male bias. More female than male employees reported discriminatory incidents at work, but both groups reported gender-based discrimination. Gender-based discrimination was the most prominent form of discrimination reported by women. Some female respondents reported pro-male and others pro-female discrimination. The same pattern applied to men. No statistically significant gender wage gap was found and the salaries of males and females were not differentially affected by qualifications, training, workplace experience or family responsibility. Managers and employees concurred that gender-based discrimination was the primary source of discrimination in the workplace, and they reported similarly on the consequences of this problem. Conclusions and recommendations: Managers are aware of discrimination in organisational processes. This awareness can be used to initiate programmes aimed at minimising discrimination. Both males and females are exposed to gender-based discrimination and they report similar consequences. This suggests that interventions should be directed at both groups. The different, and often opposing, reports provided by the male and female groups support the social identity theory and conceptions of group-serving bias. From the objective data it can be concluded that perceptions of being discriminated against are the result of psycho-social processes and not necessarily the result of justifiable biographical differences. / PhD (Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Analysis of the National Sample Survey Data from 2011-2012 shows that a gender-based education gap exists. Women are more likely than men to be illiterate. Some parents continue to view household duties as more important than education in the case of girls, causing some to drop out in primary and middle school, which leads to lower experience accumulation. However, females are almost equally as likely as males to be enrolled in school, and an equal proportion of males and females earn higher education degrees. More importantly, the difference in resource allocation seems to be minimal. Although education has a strong, positive impact on wages, returns to education for women are lower than those for men. This is taken into account by parents when making education decisions for their children. As a result, the wage gap appears to be a cause and effect of the education gap.

As of 2016, women in the U.S. are still making 80 cents on the dollar relative to men, and even with controls for other factors such as education, experience, and hours worked, the pay disparity is still around eight percent. The equity, efficiency wage, and Cognitive Evaluation Theories, suggest that a closed gender wage gap would be more beneficial to society. This paper uses these theories to investigate the relationship between productivity and pay disparity by using an ordinary least squares regression model to test the effects of the gender wage ratio on labor productivity while controlling for some human capital characteristics. Additionally, this paper furthers the hypotheses that the wage gap is detrimental to labor productivity and worker well-being by proposing a study in which a simulated wage gap is predicted to negatively affect worker satisfaction, motivation, and productivity. Findings and implications for further research are discussed.

Doctor of Philosophy / Economics / Yang M. Chang / This dissertation consists of three essays in the field of household and family economics. Specifically, the research focuses on the optimal taxation and household behavior, gender inequality in the labor market during economics transition, and fertility choices and female labor supply. Chapter 1 explores the welfare implications of an optimal tax-transfer schedule to dual-earner couples. A non-cooperative model is used to examine labor supply decisions of married couples to both individual- and joint-based taxation, and the results suggest that the impact of income taxation on family labor supply is largely dependent on spouses' relative wage income. I also investigate the welfare effect of a governmental imposed re-distributive program on both spouses, the simulation results of moving from individual to joint taxation improves both spouses' well-beings and the welfare gain is higher for couples when income gap between the husband and the wife is larger. Chapter 2 empirically examines the impact of privatization reform on gender wage gap in urban labor market based on a comprehensive nationwide survey, the Chinese Household Income Projects (CHIP). We observe, between 1995 and 2007, the gender wage gap rises, and the progress of privatization increases women’s productivity. The results of decomposition suggest that the increase in gender discrimination, which is associated with the rapid growth of non-state sector, contributes to widening gender wage gap. Although privatization increase gender segregation in occupational attainments, it is less obvious that segregation can account for the gender wage gap. In Chapter 3, using the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), we find mothers earn less on average even after controlling for other wage determinants. The wage penalty associated with motherhood is insignificant in the early career, and arises partly due to mothers accumulating less work experience. As a result, late mothers experience stronger (weaker) returns to work experience before (after) their transition to motherhood. The differentials in returns to work experience are robust to controlling for occupational skill requirements and time spent out of employment.

In this study, I compare men and women with and without children to analyze the effect of children on wages and earnings. By comparing the gender wage gap to the family gap for men and women respectively, I find that there is still a persistent, yet rather small, family gap for women. The constant family gap for women supports the notion that a greater fraction of the gender wage gap can be explained by effects of having children now than previously. When using yearly earnings instead of hourly wages, the gender wage gap increases whereas the family gap for women decreases. This implies that although there are several policies with the aim of reducing gender wage differences and creating possibilities for women to combine work and family, there are still concrete effects that arise from taking the responsibility for children. Because the effect of having children is seemingly constant over time for women, the results from this study imply that specific policies are needed to prevent and battle the difference in labor market outcomes that arise because of the differing effects from caring for children.

[pt] Este trabalho tem como objetivo investigar os determinantes do diferencial de rendimentos público-privado para diferentes níveis de escolaridade dos trabalhadores no Brasil. Primeiramente, utilizando o rendimento do trabalho principal como variável de interesse, é estimado um hiato de rendimentos bastante favorável ao setor público para trabalhadores com baixa escolaridade. Já para trabalhadores mais qualificados, o hiato tende a desaparecer ou mesmo a tornar-se favorável ao setor privado. Adicionalmente, de maneira a considerar os diferentes regimes de aposentadoria vigentes no país, é definida a variável Valor Presente do Contrato de Trabalho (VPCT) como medida dos rendimentos dos indivíduos ao longo da vida. Diferentemente do resultado encontrado utilizando o rendimento do trabalho, é verificado que o diferencial do VPCT é favorável ao setor público mesmo para trabalhadores com elevados níveis de escolaridade. / [en] This dissertation studies the determinants of the public-private wage gap for different levels of schooling of Brazilian workers. Firstly, using the current wage as the variable of interest, it is estimated wage gap favorable to the less educated workers from the public sector. On the other hand, for workers with higher qualification the wage gap disappears or becomes favorable to the private sector. Further, we considerate the different regimes of retirement in Brazil by creating the variable Present Value of Work Contract (PVWC). This variable is a measure of the life time earnings for each individual of our database. Different from the results of the current wage, we found that the PVWC gap is favorable to the public sector even for the most educated group of workers.