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Family, firms and the gender wage gap in France

Author

Listed:
  • Elise Coudin

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies)

  • Sophie Maillard

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies)

  • Maxime To

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institut des politiques publiques (IPP))

Abstract

This paper explores how two main channels explaining the gender wage gap, namely the heterogeneity of firm pay policies and sex-specific wage consequences of parenthood, interact. We perform Card et al. (2016) decompositions all along workers’ life cycle to evidence a sorting mechanism of French private sector female workers into lower-paying firms that activates shortly after births of children. Mothers tend to work in firms with more flexible work hours and close to home. Gender-specific firm choices generate wage losses all along mothers’ careers, in addition to direct child penalties. Young mothers with low wage expectations exiting the labor market after births leads to underestimate these effects. This working paper was updated on 31/07/19.

Suggested Citation

  • Elise Coudin & Sophie Maillard & Maxime To, 2018. "Family, firms and the gender wage gap in France," IFS Working Papers W18/01, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:18/01
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    Cited by:

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    3. Forth, John & Theodoropoulos, Nikolaos, 2022. "Earnings Discrimination in the Workplace," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1110, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Rossen Anja & Boll Christina & Wolf André, 2019. "Patterns of Overeducation in Europe: The Role of Field of Study," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-48, June.
    5. Sarah Louise Jewell & Giovanni Razzu & Carl Singleton, 2020. "Who Works for Whom and the UK Gender Pay Gap," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(1), pages 50-81, March.
    6. Pierre PORA & Lionel WILNER, 2019. "Child Penalties and Financial Incentives: Exploiting Variation along the Wage distribution," Working Papers 2019-17, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    7. Chiara Criscuolo & Alexander Hijzen & Cyrille Schwellnus & Erling Barth & Wen-Hao Chen & Richard Fabling & Priscilla Fialho & Balazs Stadler & Richard Upward & Wouter Zwysen & Katarzyna Grabska-Romago, 2020. "Workforce composition, productivity and pay: the role of firms in wage inequality," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1603, OECD Publishing.
    8. Paul Brandily & Camille Hémet & Clément Malgouyres, 2022. "Understanding the Reallocation of Displaced Workers to Firms," PSE Working Papers halshs-03082302, HAL.
    9. Li, Jiang & Dostie, Benoit & Simard-Duplain, Gaëlle, 2020. "What Is the Role of Firm-Specific Pay Policies on the Gender Earnings Gap in Canada?," IZA Discussion Papers 13907, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Rosenbaum, Philip, 2020. "Does early childbearing matter? New approach using Danish register data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    11. Thomas Breda & Paul Dutronc-Postel & Joyce Sultan Parraud & Maxime Tô, 2021. "Les inégalités salariales femmes-hommes dans les entreprises," Institut des Politiques Publiques halshs-03243407, HAL.
    12. Fanfani, Bernardo, 2022. "Tastes for discrimination in monopsonistic labour markets," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    13. Masso, Jaan & Meriküll, Jaanika & Vahter, Priit, 2022. "The role of firms in the gender wage gap," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 454-473.
    14. Anne‐Sophie Bruno & Nathalie Greenan & Jeremy Tanguy, 2021. "Does the Gender Mix Influence Collective Bargaining on Gender Equality? Evidence from France," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 479-520, October.
    15. Hennig, Jan-Luca & Stadler, Balazs, 2021. "Firm-specific pay premiums and the gender wage gap in 21 European countries," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242354, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    16. Bana, Sarah & Bedard, Kelly & Rossin-Slater, Maya & Stearns, Jenna, 2023. "Unequal use of social insurance benefits: The role of employers," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 633-660.
    17. Alessandra Casarico & Salvatore Lattanzio, 2023. "Behind the child penalty: understanding what contributes to the labour market costs of motherhood," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1489-1511, July.
    18. Morchio, Iacopo & Moser, Christian, 2018. "The Gender Pay Gap: Micro Sources and Macro Consequences," MPRA Paper 99276, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 24 Mar 2020.
    19. Jaan Masso & Priit Vahter, 2020. "Innovation As A Firm-Level Factor Of The Gender Wage Gap," University of Tartu - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Working Paper Series 128, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia).
    20. Cruz, Gabriel & Rau, Tomás, 2022. "The effects of equal pay laws on firm pay premiums: Evidence from Chile," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    21. Aline Zucco, 2019. "Occupational Characteristics and the Gender Pay Gap," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1794, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    22. Baird Matthew D. & Zaber Melanie A. & Bozick Robert, 2022. "Beyond traditional academic degrees: The labor market returns to occupational credentials in the United States," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-38, January.
    23. Jan‐luca Hennig & Balazs Stadler, 2023. "Firm‐specific pay premiums and the gender wage gap in Europe," Post-Print hal-04171877, HAL.
    24. Casarico, A. & Lattanzio, S., 2019. "What Firms Do: Gender Inequality in Linked Employer-Employee Data," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1966, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    25. Jan‐Luca Hennig & Balazs Stadler, 2023. "Firm‐specific pay premiums and the gender wage gap in Europe," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(359), pages 911-936, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender wage gap; gender inequalities; linked employer-employee data; two-way fixed effect models; discrimination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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