Compensating differentials and the gender earnings gap among the less-educated

Abstract

This research focuses on the role of occupational characteristics in the occupation-specific gender earnings gap for less-educated individuals. Using data from the American Community Survey and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Information Network, I estimate the gender earnings gap within 404 occupations and identify occupational characteristics that are associated with an increasing or decreasing gender earnings gap within occupations. I find the importance, necessity, and frequency of cooperatively working with other individuals within an occupation is associated with a decreasing gender earnings gap within occupations, whereas the amount of responsibility a worker has within an occupation is associated with an increasing gender earnings gap. I also find evidence of a relationship between the gender earnings gap and the price of temporal flexibility within occupations, with the price of flexibility increasing in the amount of time pressure a worker faces and the regularity of work schedules.