a column by Judith Delaney and Paul Devereux for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
Women are much less likely to study STEM degrees at university.
This column reveals that in the case of Ireland, the gender gap is concentrated in the areas of engineering, technology, and mathematics.
Subject choice in secondary school is the most important predictor of the portion of the gap that can be explained, with a small role for grades achieved in mathematics versus English. A gender gap of 9% remains even among students who studied the same subjects and achieved the same grades at secondary school.
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Showing posts with label pay_gap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pay_gap. Show all posts
Friday, 26 April 2019
Thursday, 23 August 2012
The Immigrant Earnings Disadvantage across the Earnings and Skills Distributions: The Case of Immigrants from the EU's New Member States
an article by Alan Barrett and Séamus McGuinness (Economic and Social Research Institute) and Martin O'Brien (Central Bank of Ireland) published in British Journal of Industrial Relations Volume 50 Issue 3 (September 2012)
Abstract
We analyse the earnings of immigrants from the EU’s new member states (NMS) using a large-scale dataset with information on employees in Ireland.
We find that the average earnings difference between these immigrants and natives is between 10 and 18 per cent, depending on the controls used.
However, the difference is found to be lower for people at the lower end of the earnings distribution. It is also generally lower for people at the lower end of the education distribution.
We find mixed evidence on whether unions have an impact on the wages of immigrants from the NMS, although such immigrants appear to suffer a wage penalty as a result of being in firms that provided training to a significant proportion of their workforce.
Abstract
We analyse the earnings of immigrants from the EU’s new member states (NMS) using a large-scale dataset with information on employees in Ireland.
We find that the average earnings difference between these immigrants and natives is between 10 and 18 per cent, depending on the controls used.
However, the difference is found to be lower for people at the lower end of the earnings distribution. It is also generally lower for people at the lower end of the education distribution.
We find mixed evidence on whether unions have an impact on the wages of immigrants from the NMS, although such immigrants appear to suffer a wage penalty as a result of being in firms that provided training to a significant proportion of their workforce.
Monday, 20 August 2012
Understanding the ethnic pay gap in Britain
an article by Malcolm Brynin and Ayse Güveli (University of Essex) published in Work Employment & Society Volume 26 Number 4 (August 2012)
Abstract
The pay gap between white British workers and other ethnic groups is largely in favour of whites, which suggests that discrimination might be a factor.
However, discrimination can occur at two points, at entry to the job and within the job.
In the former case non-whites might find it difficult to work in well-paid occupations; in the latter they obtain the same sorts of jobs as whites but receive less pay. There is therefore predominantly either job or wage discrimination.
We use the British Labour Force Survey 1993–2008 to show that much of the pay gap is explained by occupational segregation while within occupations the ethnic pay gap is far less substantial.
Occupational segregation therefore has strong negative effects, but if minorities are over-represented in occupations with a positive wage gap, then there is also a ‘protective’ element to segregation.
Abstract
The pay gap between white British workers and other ethnic groups is largely in favour of whites, which suggests that discrimination might be a factor.
However, discrimination can occur at two points, at entry to the job and within the job.
In the former case non-whites might find it difficult to work in well-paid occupations; in the latter they obtain the same sorts of jobs as whites but receive less pay. There is therefore predominantly either job or wage discrimination.
We use the British Labour Force Survey 1993–2008 to show that much of the pay gap is explained by occupational segregation while within occupations the ethnic pay gap is far less substantial.
Occupational segregation therefore has strong negative effects, but if minorities are over-represented in occupations with a positive wage gap, then there is also a ‘protective’ element to segregation.
Monday, 13 August 2012
Up-skilling the middle: How skills policy can help ensure that low to middle income households share in future economic growth
a new paper by Anna Vignoles (Institute of Education and Centre for the Analysis of Youth Transitions) published by the Resolution Foundation in its series “Living Standards”
Introduction
Successive governments have placed skills policy at the heart of strategies to raise living standards and tackle low pay. The importance of up-skilling, for the adult population in particular, reached a high point under New Labour, with low skill levels seen as one of, if not the most important factors holding back businesses from pursuing higher productivity and higher wage strategies.1 Yet there is growing cynicism about the potential for increases in skills per se to improve the material well-being of people on low to middle incomes (LMIs). While those who have degrees continue to reap significant wage benefits from their higher skill levels, the picture looks quite different for the majority of LMIs who possess low and intermediate qualifications, where the returns tend to be much lower and more variable. This paper asks why, despite massive public investment, and a dramatic increase in qualifications, skills policies have failed to deliver significant wage gains for this group of non-graduates, and what could be done to improve their prospects.
There is broad agreement that our education system and labour market work relatively well for most graduates. Average returns to degrees have remained high, despite the increase in the number of graduates. This might suggest there is some scope to raise LMI incomes through increasing the numbers going to higher education still further. There is less agreement on why the gap between graduates and those with low and intermediate qualifications remains so large, and why returns to these qualifications are so variable. Broadly speaking, the debate amongst academics and policy makers is split: on one side are those who point to failings in the skills system and the UK’s relatively low supply of certain skills; on the other are a growing number who argue that the ‘hollowing out’ of jobs in the middle of the labour market has reduced the demand for intermediate level skills from employers, and that this is reflected in lower wages and productivity for some workers. This paper carries out a critical review of skills policy specifically as it applies to the low to middle income group. We argue that in the context of an increasingly polarised labour market, one key challenge for skills policy in the next decade will be making those with low and intermediate skill more competitive with graduates, reducing the big gap in earnings between these groups.
Section 1 provides a brief overview of why skills matter – both for individuals’ productivity and wages, and in terms of the growth of the economy as a whole.
Section 2 summarises the current state of the academic and policy debate.
Section 3 looks briefly at recent trends in skills supply and demand, before pulling these two stories together in an attempt to steer a course through these debates.
Section four draws out the implications of this discussion for policy.
The paper is part of a series of contributions to the Resolution Foundation’s Commission on Living Standards. It will inform the Commission’s discussions in the run up to a final report in the autumn.
___________
1 Lloyd, Caroline and Mayhew, Ken, Skill: the solution to low wage work?, Industrial Relations Journal 41:5, 429–445 (2010)
Full text (PDF 24pp)
Introduction
Successive governments have placed skills policy at the heart of strategies to raise living standards and tackle low pay. The importance of up-skilling, for the adult population in particular, reached a high point under New Labour, with low skill levels seen as one of, if not the most important factors holding back businesses from pursuing higher productivity and higher wage strategies.1 Yet there is growing cynicism about the potential for increases in skills per se to improve the material well-being of people on low to middle incomes (LMIs). While those who have degrees continue to reap significant wage benefits from their higher skill levels, the picture looks quite different for the majority of LMIs who possess low and intermediate qualifications, where the returns tend to be much lower and more variable. This paper asks why, despite massive public investment, and a dramatic increase in qualifications, skills policies have failed to deliver significant wage gains for this group of non-graduates, and what could be done to improve their prospects.
There is broad agreement that our education system and labour market work relatively well for most graduates. Average returns to degrees have remained high, despite the increase in the number of graduates. This might suggest there is some scope to raise LMI incomes through increasing the numbers going to higher education still further. There is less agreement on why the gap between graduates and those with low and intermediate qualifications remains so large, and why returns to these qualifications are so variable. Broadly speaking, the debate amongst academics and policy makers is split: on one side are those who point to failings in the skills system and the UK’s relatively low supply of certain skills; on the other are a growing number who argue that the ‘hollowing out’ of jobs in the middle of the labour market has reduced the demand for intermediate level skills from employers, and that this is reflected in lower wages and productivity for some workers. This paper carries out a critical review of skills policy specifically as it applies to the low to middle income group. We argue that in the context of an increasingly polarised labour market, one key challenge for skills policy in the next decade will be making those with low and intermediate skill more competitive with graduates, reducing the big gap in earnings between these groups.
Section 1 provides a brief overview of why skills matter – both for individuals’ productivity and wages, and in terms of the growth of the economy as a whole.
Section 2 summarises the current state of the academic and policy debate.
Section 3 looks briefly at recent trends in skills supply and demand, before pulling these two stories together in an attempt to steer a course through these debates.
Section four draws out the implications of this discussion for policy.
The paper is part of a series of contributions to the Resolution Foundation’s Commission on Living Standards. It will inform the Commission’s discussions in the run up to a final report in the autumn.
___________
1 Lloyd, Caroline and Mayhew, Ken, Skill: the solution to low wage work?, Industrial Relations Journal 41:5, 429–445 (2010)
Full text (PDF 24pp)
Sunday, 17 August 2008
Equal rights: Prejudice contributes to women earning less, says ONS study
via Current Awareness by sally on 12 August
"Two-thirds of the earnings divide between men and women is due to 'unobservable factors' including discrimination and has nothing to do with lower skills or productivity, according to a government study released yesterday."
Full story
The Guardian 12 August
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Hazel's comment:
Thank heavens for Sally (and the other girls at the Inner Temple Library but it's mainly Sally's name I see on the 10-20 daily posts) for picking up on the stories I missed – like this one.
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