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Closing the Gender Pay Gap and Individual Task Profiles: Women s Advantages from Technological Progress

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  • Fedorets, Alexandra

Abstract

In the present paper I provide novel evidence on the formation of the gender pay gap with respect to directly measured job task contents. Using high-quality administrative employment data for Germany, and augmenting these by individual-level task information, I provide detailed evidence on the evolution of task contents and their gender-specific remuneration across and within occupations for both genders. The main finding of the paper is that the formation of the pay gap is substantially driven by the relative prices for non-routine cognitive tasks. Moreover, I document convergence in prices for non-routine cognitive tasks and convergence of tasks contents within occupational groups. The only exception from this general finding constitutes the top of the wage distribution, where the substantial difference in prices for non-routine cognitive tasks is persistent and the pay gap is not narrowing.

Suggested Citation

  • Fedorets, Alexandra, 2014. "Closing the Gender Pay Gap and Individual Task Profiles: Women s Advantages from Technological Progress," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100362, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc14:100362
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    More about this item

    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
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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