IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2505.09791.html

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now? An Investigation into Gender Differences in the Impact of Switching Jobs on Earnings

Author

Listed:
  • Emily Winskill

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between job mobility and earnings growth in the UK labour market, with a focus on gender differences in the returns to switching jobs. Using data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) between 2011 and 2023, the analysis compares wage progression for job switchers and stayers, controlling for individual and job characteristics. The findings show that job mobility is associated with higher earnings growth, but women experience smaller gains than men, with occupational mobility and age further widening this gap. However, the study finds no statistically significant evidence that changes in occupation, sector, or working time pattern influence this gender gap. The results highlight the importance of addressing gender disparities in the returns to job mobility and provide valuable evidence for developing policy interventions aimed at promoting more equitable labour market outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Emily Winskill, 2025. "Should I Stay or Should I Go Now? An Investigation into Gender Differences in the Impact of Switching Jobs on Earnings," Papers 2505.09791, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2505.09791
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.09791
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stefan Eriksson & Jonas Lagerström, 2012. "The Labor Market Consequences of Gender Differences in Job Search," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 303-327, September.
    2. Michael Amior, 2024. "Education and Geographical Mobility: The Role of the Job Surplus," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 341-381, November.
    3. Robert H. Topel & Michael P. Ward, 1992. "Job Mobility and the Careers of Young Men," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 439-479.
    4. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1979. "Job Matching and the Theory of Turnover," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 972-990, October.
    5. Gary S. Becker, 1964. "Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, First Edition," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck-5, January.
    6. John A. List, 2024. "Optimally generate policy-based evidence before scaling," Nature, Nature, vol. 626(7999), pages 491-499, February.
    7. Laura Hospido, 2009. "Gender differences in wage growth and job mobility of young workers in Spain," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 33(1), pages 5-37, January.
    8. Alan Manning & Helen Robinson, 2004. "Something in the way she moves: a fresh look at an old gap," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 56(2), pages 169-188, April.
    9. Kidd, Michael P. & O'Leary, Nigel & Sloane, Peter, 2017. "The impact of mobility on early career earnings: A quantile regression approach for UK graduates," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 90-102.
    10. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:641-692 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David Card & Francesco Devicienti & Mariacristina Rossi & Andrea Weber, 2025. "The Gender Gap in Career Trajectories: Do Firms Matter?," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 11(3), pages 831-853, November.
    2. Harkness, Susan & Popova, Daria & Avram, Silvia, 2023. "Gender differences in job mobility and pay progression in the UK," ISER Working Paper Series 2023-02, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    3. Harkness, Susan & Popova, Daria & Avram, Silvia, 2023. "Gender differences in job mobility and pay progression in the UK," Centre for Microsimulation and Policy Analysis Working Paper Series CEMPA4/23, Centre for Microsimulation and Policy Analysis at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    4. Sami Napari, 2006. "The Early Career Gender Wage Gap," CEP Discussion Papers dp0738, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. Poege, Felix & Gaessler, Fabian & Hoisl, Karin & Harhoff, Dietmar & Dorner, Matthias, 2022. "Filling the Gap: The Consequences of Collaborator Loss in Corporate R&D," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 340, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    6. Sami Napari, 2008. "The Early‐career Gender Wage Gap among University Graduates in the Finnish Private Sector," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 22(4), pages 697-733, December.
    7. Kunze, Astrid & Troske, Kenneth R., 2012. "Life-cycle patterns in male/female differences in job search," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 176-185.
    8. Clemens Noelke & Daniel Horn, 2011. "Social Transformation and the Transition from Vocational Education to Work," Budapest Working Papers on the Labour Market 1105, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    9. Pedros Silos & Eric Smith, 2015. "Human Capital Portfolios," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 18(3), pages 635-652, July.
    10. Virginia Minni, 2023. "Making the invisible hand visible: Managers and the allocation of workers to jobs," STICERD - Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers Series 72, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    11. Zsolt Csáfordi & László Lőrincz & Balázs Lengyel & Károly Miklós Kiss, 2020. "Productivity spillovers through labor flows: productivity gap, multinational experience and industry relatedness," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 86-121, February.
    12. Giovanni Sulis, 2014. "Wage Returns to Experience and Tenure for Young Men in Italy," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 61(5), pages 559-588, November.
    13. Raven Molloy & Christopher L. Smith & Abigail Wozniak, 2013. "Declining Migration wihin the US: The Role of the Labor Market," Working Papers 13-53, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    14. Alan Manning & Joanna Swaffield, 2008. "The gender gap in early-career wage growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(530), pages 983-1024, July.
    15. Theodoropoulos, Nikos & Singleton, Carl, 2026. "Returns to Tenure: A Critical Assessment of the Evidence and Interpretation," IZA Discussion Papers 18705, IZA Network @ LISER.
    16. Davis, Steven J., 2000. "Reorganization: A comment," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 23-31, June.
    17. Bart Cockx & Matteo Picchio, 2013. "Scarring effects of remaining unemployed for long-term unemployed school-leavers," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 176(4), pages 951-980, October.
    18. David Dorn & Florian Schoner & Moritz Seebacher & Lisa Simon & Ludger Woessmann, 2024. "Multidimensional Skills on LinkedIn Profiles: Measuring Human Capital and the Gender Skill Gap," Papers 2409.18638, arXiv.org, revised May 2025.
    19. Jeffrey Clemens & Michael R. Strain, 2023. "How important are minimum wage increases in increasing the wages of minimum wage workers?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(4), pages 594-612, October.
    20. Avner Ahituv & Robert Lerman, 2011. "Job turnover, wage rates, and marital stability: How are they related?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 221-249, June.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2505.09791. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.