Analisis de la segregación laboral por género: La "Teoría de la Contaminación" en el mercado de trabajo español[Analysis of gender labour segregation: The “Theory of Pollution” in the Spanish labour market]

From a very general and broad perspective, Goldin's Pollution theory predicts that in those occupations where the presence of women is high or increasing, or in feminized labor locations, there is a decrease in the average wage. Labor areas where men are predominantly employed would, to a certain extent, be "threatened" or "contaminated" by the arrival of women whose consequence would be a fall in the prestige of the work and, therefore, of the average remuneration received. This is due in part to the lack of awareness of women's productivity and the association of lower productivity to them, based on characteristics such as gender, which is not determinant. Likewise, according to this theory there would also be a segregation of labor occupations between male and female along with a differentiation of wages between highs and lows. Currently, Contamination Theory constitutes one of the most widely used explanations of gender segregation. In this article we test the validity of this theory in the Spanish labor market. To do this, using a data pool constructed with the 2010-14 Salary Structure Survey, we will analyze the average wage in different labor locations based on the female presence. The results indicate a low compliance with the Pollution Theory in Spain. Only when estimates are made from a sectoral perspective do significant results. In the opinion of the authors this is due to the fact that the higher education or education provided by women has stopped the wage reduction predicted by this theory, as well as the high concentration of female employment in public employment and its labor peculiarities.