Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this paper examines the role of gender in the promotion process and the importance of promotions in the relative labor market outcomes of young men and women in their early careers. Specifically, how do the factors related to promotion differ for men and women? How do gender differences in promotion translate into differences in subsequent wage growth? To what extent does the promotions gap contribute to the gender wage gap? In answering these questions, alternative definitions of "promotion" will be considered. Getting ahead matters - particularly for women. The results indicate that women are less likely to be promoted. This gender gap in promotions - the magnitude of which depends on the measure of promotion considered - is explained by differences in the returns to characteristics. Had men and women in our sample faced the same promotion standard, promotion rates would have been higher for women than for men. Furthermore, the share of overall wage growth attributable to promotion is much larger for women than for men reflecting a bifurcation in outcomes between women who get ahead and women who get left behind. Eliminating gender differences in the determinants of and wage payoffs to promotion would contribute to a narrowing of the gender wage gap.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number
288.
Find related papers by JEL classification: J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)