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The Early Career Gender Wage Gap

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  • Sami Napari

Abstract

In Finland the gender wage gap increases significantly during the first 10 years after labor market entry accounting most of the life-time increase in the gender wage gap. This paper focuses on the early career gender wage differences among university graduates and considers several explanations for the gender wage gap based on the human capital theory, job mobility and labor market segregation. Gender differences in the accumulation of experience and in the type of education explain about 16 percent of the average gender wage gap that emerges during the first 11 years after labor market entry among university graduates. Differences in employer characteristics between male and female graduates account about 10 percent for the average early career gender wage gap. In all gender differences in background characteristics explain about 27 percent of the average early career wage differences between male and female university graduates. The most important single factor contributing to the gender wage gap is the family type. Women seem to suffer considerable larger wage losses due to marriage and children than men.

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  • Sami Napari, 2006. "The Early Career Gender Wage Gap," CEP Discussion Papers dp0738, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0738
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    Cited by:

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    2. Leombruni Roberto & Mosca Michele, 2013. "The lifetime gender gap in Italy. Does the pension system countervail labour market outcomes?," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201302, University of Turin.
    3. Braakmann Nils, 2013. "What Determines Wage Inequality Among Young German University Graduates?," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 233(2), pages 130-158, April.
    4. Nils Braakmann, 2008. "Non scholae, sed vitae discimus! - The importance of fields of study for the gender wage gap among German university graduates during labor market entry and the first years of their careers," Working Paper Series in Economics 85, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    5. Ilse Lindenlaub & Anja Prummer, 2014. "Gender, Social Networks And Performance," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1461, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    6. Roberto Leombruni & Michele Mosca, 2011. "The lifetime gender gap in Italy. Do the pension system countervails labour market outcomes?," LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series 113, LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender wage gap; early career;

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination

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