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Coskun Dalgic, Sena, Hermann Gartner & Ahmet Ali Taskin (2025): Rent Sharing and the Gender Bargaining Gap: Evidence from the Banking Sector. (IAB-Discussion Paper 06/2025), Nürnberg, 40 S. DOI:10.48720/IAB.DP.2506

Abstract

"Wir nutzen den Wegfall staatlicher Bankgarantien in Deutschland als quasi-natürliches Experiment, um den Unterschied zwischen Männern und Frauen bei der Verhandlungsmacht abzuschätzen. Anhand umfassender Lohndaten von Bankangestellten, kombiniert mit Finanzinformationen auf Bankebene, stellen wir fest, dass Frauen etwa zwei Drittel der Verhandlungsmacht von Männern haben. Unsere modellbasierte Analyse legt nahe, dass diese geschlechtsspezifische Verhandlungsmacht allein 13 bis 25 Prozent der beobachteten geschlechtsspezifischen Lohnlücke in der Branche ausmacht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen eine wichtige Ursache der Lohnunterschiede zwischen Männern und Frauen: Eine Veränderung der Profitabilität von Firmen kannn die geschlechtsspezifische Lohnlücke verringern, ohne dass sich die Gleichstellung der Geschlechter strukturell verbessert. Dieser Effekt hat erhebliche Auswirkungen auf Branchen mit hohen Profiten und hoher Ungleichheit wie der Finanzbranche, in denen der Modus der Verteilung der Profite männliche Beschäftigte begünstigt." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Darvas, Zsolt & Nina Ruer (2025): Gender wealth inequality in the European Union: a distributional perspective. (Working paper / Bruegel 2025,26), Brüssel, 47 S. DOI:10.64153/kgcu4277

Abstract

"This paper investigates gender-related disparities in wealth in European Union countries using the 2010-2021 waves of the European Central Bank’s Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS). To address the difficulty of within-household wealth allocation and provide a cleaner comparison of men and women’s wealth positions, we focus on single, never-married individuals aged 25-65, without dependants. A full-sample regression controlling for demographic, labour market and socioeconomic characteristics does not reveal a statistically significant gender wealth gap in the EU overall, or in most EU countries. When examining the wealth gap against wealth distribution, we find negligible gaps among the less wealthy. However, we find significant gaps among the middle class and the wealthiest individuals. This distributional disparity was barely visible in 2010 but had become pronounced by 2021, suggesting that gender-based wealth disparities have widened over time. Men are more likely to own property, operate businesses and invest in risky financial assets, which are all major drivers of wealth. By contrast, women hold more bank deposits and low-risk assets. Although women have higher educational attainment, which is typically associated with greater wealth, this advantage does not fully translate into financial outcomes. Finally, we document substantial cross-country differences, possibly shaped by cultural norms, institutional settings, labour market histories and inheritance regimes." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Demiral, Elif E., Macie Addley & Erin Taylor (2025): Closing the gender negotiation gap: The power of entitlements, In: Journal of Economic Psychology, Jg. 106. DOI:10.1016/j.joep.2024.102786

Abstract

"Women are less likely to negotiate for their labor market outcomes than men and this finding is linked to the gender gaps in economic outcomes. Through a wage negotiation experiment, we investigate how entitlements influence gender differences in negotiation likelihood. We manipulate the formation of entitlements by employing different hiring methods. Our results reveal that when the hiring process is based on luck (random treatment), men are more prone to negotiate than women. In the condition where the hiring process lacks transparency (unknown treatment), the gender gap declines and remains muted. When the hiring process is transparently grounded on merit (entitlement treatment), women react by displaying higher negotiation likelihood, and the gender gap in negotiation not only declines but reverses in direction. These findings underscore the potential of transparent and merit-based recruitment practices in mitigating gender disparities within labor market outcomes." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.) ((en))

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Detemple, Jonas (2025): Partnerships as signposts? The role of spatial mobility in gendered earnings benefits of graduates. In: Advances in life course research, Jg. 63. DOI:10.1016/j.alcr.2024.100656

Abstract

"This study analyzes the gender-specific impact of spatial mobility on earnings after graduation from higher education, extending previous research on graduates’ mobility benefits, which has largely ignored gender-specific mechanisms. Based on household economic and gender role considerations, this study argues that partnerships are associated with solidifying gender differences in mobility-related earnings benefits. The study uses data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), Starting Cohort First-Year Students (SC5), and applies entropy balancing weights to account for the self-selection of mobile graduates. General linear models show a weak correlation between overal graduate mobility and higher earnings and that gender differences are rather small and depend on the type of mobility. However, looking at the role of partnerships, female graduates benefit significantly less from short-distance mobility when cohabiting with a partner than their non-cohabiting counterparts, while cohabiting male graduates benefit significantly more from long-distance mobility. The findings contribute to the literature by highlighting the crucial role of partnerships in the gendered mobility benefits of graduates." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2025 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.) ((en))

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Diallo, Yaya, Fabian Lange & Laetitia Renée (2025): Can Paternity Leave Reduce the Gender Earnings Gap? (IZA discussion paper / Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit 17624), Bonn, 38 S.

Abstract

"This paper examines the impact of paternity leave on the gender gap in labor market outcomes. Utilizing administrative data from Canadian tax records, we analyze the introduction of Quebec's 2006 paternity leave policy, which offers five weeks of paid leave exclusively to fathers. Using mothers and fathers of children born around the reform, we estimate how the policy impacted labor market outcomes up to 10 years following birth. The reform significantly increased fathers' uptake of parental leave and reduced their earnings immediately after the reform. However, in the medium to long-run, we find that the reform did not impact earnings, employment, or the probability of being employed in a high-wage industry for either parent. We for instance find a 95%-CI for the effect on average female earnings 3-10 years following the reform ranging from -2.2 to +1.7%. Estimates of effects on other outcomes and for males are similarly precise zeros. There is likewise no evidence that the reform changed social norms around care-taking and family responsibilities." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Diehl, Claudia, Julia Lang, Ole Brüggemann & Susanne Strauss (2025): Is My Wage Fair? Validating Fairness Perceptions among Women and Men. In: Socius, Jg. 11, S. 1-21., 2025-07-22. DOI:10.1177/23780231251366126

Abstract

"The authors examine gender differences in perceptions of the fairness of one’s own pay. This work differs from previous studies, as the authors not only assess whether women are as likely as men to perceive their pay as unfair at the same absolute wage levels. Instead, they use an innovative methodology based on linked employer-employee data. This makes it possible to compare subjective perceptions of (un)fair pay with the predicted pay of comparable others with the same individual-, work-, occupation-, and firm-related characteristics. The authors use the measurement of how closely a person’s pay aligns with the predicted pay of comparable others as a strictly empirical indicator of whether someone’s pay is fair. Overall, women are as likely as men to perceive a fair wage as unfair or an unfair wage as fair. Although the data at hand do not make it possible to explore the causes of this, or to assess whether women and men used to differ more in their perceptions of fairness, the authors speculate that women today may be more aware of the societal debate about gender-based wage discrimination, and their perceptions of appropriate compensation may be less influenced by gendered comparison groups and gender status beliefs than previous research has suggested." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © SAGE) ((en))

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Doan, Tinh, Liana Leach & Lyndall Strazdins (2025): The Economic Costs of Men's Long Work Hours for Women: Evidence on the Gender Wage Earnings Gap from Australia and Germany. In: Social indicators research, Jg. 179, H. 2, S. 1073-1100. DOI:10.1007/s11205-025-03647-1

Abstract

"Women’s earnings inequality persists, despite policy efforts to reduce discrimination and gender bias. Gender gaps in earnings, however, are a function of hours worked as well as wage rates, and reflect gendered short and long work hour patterns. Within households, how partners exchange time is a crucial driver of hours worked yet this is rarely incorporated into analysis of gender earning gaps. Using a two-stage instrumental variable Oaxaca- Blinder decomposition we model earnings gaps as a function of own and partner hours on and off the job. This enables us to estimate what the gender gap in hours and earnings would look like without a gendered time ‘subsidy’ or ‘borrowing’ in the home. We studied dual-earner households in two countries, Australia and Germany, finding a weekly earnings gap of AUD$536 and €400. This was accompanied by a weekly work hour gap of 12 h in Australia and 13 in Germany. When we accounted for the influence of partner’s hours (paid or unpaid), work hour gaps reduce to 5.1 h in Australian households (58% reduction), and to 6.9 h in German (47% reduction). In effect, women would work 3 to 4 h more each week, and men’s long hours would reduce, narrowing the gender earnings gaps by 43% in Australia and 25% in Germany, if time ‘subsidies’ in the home were eliminated. Our analysis reveals the economic cost to women long work hour cultures impose." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Dressel, Joanna, Paul Attewell, Liza Reisel & Kjersti Misje Østbakken (2025): Characteristics or Returns: Understanding Gender Pay Inequality among College Graduates in the USA. In: Work, Employment and Society, Jg. 39, H. 1, S. 185-201. DOI:10.1177/09500170241245329

Abstract

"Explanations for the persistent pay disparity between similarly qualified men and women vary between women’s different and devalued work characteristics and specific processes that result in unequal wage returns to the same characteristics. This article investigates how the gender wage gap is affected by gender differences in detailed work activities among full-time, year-round, college-graduate workers in the US using decomposition analysis in the National Survey of College Graduates. Differences in men’s and women’s characteristics account for a majority of the gender wage gap. Additionally, men and women receive different returns to several characteristics: occupational composition, marriage and work activities. While men are penalized more than women for having teaching as their primary work activity, women receive lower rewards for primary work activities such as finance and computer programming. The findings suggest that even with men and women becoming more similar on several characteristics, unequal returns to those characteristics will stall progress towards equality." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Ehab, Maye & Fatma Mossad (2025): Informal employment in the health sector: Examining gender disparities. In: International Journal of Social Welfare, Jg. 34, H. 2, 2024-09-20. DOI:10.1111/ijsw.12704

Abstract

"This paper investigates the association between informal employment as a form of non-standard employment and the prevalence of in-work poverty for women in the health sector. We measured in-work poverty using a binary indicator that provides information on whether an individual has earnings above or below the low earnings threshold. The indicator takes into account household size and whether other household members are also in paid work. Using data from the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey for the years 2012 and 2018 and logit models, we found that being employed within the health sector increased the likelihood of in-work poverty among non-standard employees, both men and women. However, higher risks of in-work poverty were witnessed among women working informally in the health sector compared to other sectors. This increased risk was particularly observed when comparing non-standard employment in the health sector to non-standard employment in non-health sectors. Furthermore, marital status plays a critical role in economic wellbeing, with never-married women being more susceptible to in-work poverty compared to ever-married women." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Wiley) ((en))

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Farré, Lídia, Libertad González, Claudia Hupkau & Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela (2025): Paternity leave in Spain. In: SERIEs, Jg. 16, H. 3-4, S. 749-784. DOI:10.1007/s13209-025-00320-1

Abstract

"Between 2017 and 2021, Spain progressively extended paternity leave from 2 to 16 weeks, equalizing it with maternity leave and introducing mandatory weeks. A 2018 reform also allowed fathers to split their leave. Using administrative data on all leave permits since 2016, we analyze trends in paternity leave take-up. Following the introduction of mandatory leave, the share of fathers taking leave increased by around 20 percentage points, and most now use nearly the full entitlement. The share opting to split leave has steadily grown, surpassing 50% by 2023. However, this behavior shows marked heterogeneity: While overall uptake is uniform across groups, leave-splitting is far more common among higher-income fathers and more prevalent in certain sectors. Spain’s experience illustrates how policy design can significantly increase paternity leave usage, though workplace flexibility and income-related constraints shape how fathers use that time." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Fraja, Gianni de & Jozsef Sakovics (2025): Discrimination Spillovers, Glass Ceilings and Pay Gaps. (CEPR discussion paper / Centre for Economic Policy Research 20056), London, 59 S.

Abstract

"This paper is a theoretical analysis of the consequences of workplace discrimination. We prove that discrimination against a group at lower levels of the hierarchy affects the pay of members of the same group at higher levels, leading to a "pay gap" relative to non-discriminated workers. These spillovers in turn induce firms to alter the match between workers and jobs for the discriminated group, potentially leading to a "glass ceiling". The phenomenon can occur even in firms where "equal pay for equal jobs" appears to be adhered to. The explanation is based on the standard participation and incentive constraints: the need to compensate workers for the direct discrimination they suffer, to induce them to work, and the need to maintain pay differentials between job levels, to provide effort incentives. We end the paper showing that neither competition among workers, nor competition among firms for workers eliminates these spillovers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Fredriksson, Peter, Dogan Gülümser & Lena Hensvik (2025): Outside Job Opportunities and the Gender Gap in Pay. (RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 2025,71), Berlin, 48 S.

Abstract

"We show that the wages of men and women are differentially affected by outside options, and that these differential responses contribute to the gender pay gap. We develop a simple model of on-the-job search that integrates two crucial gender differences: job preferences and the propensity to renegotiate wages in response to external offers. Both factors contribute to lower wage responsiveness for women when they receive outside offers, and a negative female-male pay gap. However, women’s job mobility responses vary depending on the underlying mechanism. To empirically test our model’s predictions, we analyze wageand job mobility responses of men and women to external job opportunities, mediated through family networks. Using Swedish register data, we find that improved outside options are associated with higher within-job wage growth for men but not for women. Importantly, we can rule out that these gendered responses arise from differences in the quality of external offers as these are balanced across genders by design. Additionally, men’s and women’s job mobility responses are very similar. In the light of the model, we attribute these findings to differences in negotiation behavior between men and women. Policies encouraging women to bargain in response to outside options may thus be a powerful tool for reducing the remaining within-job gender gap in pay." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Fuchs, Michaela, Antje Weyh & Gabriele Wydra-Somaggio (2025): Die spezifische Berufs- und Betriebsstruktur vor Ort führt zu deutlichen regionalen Unterschieden in der Lohnlücke zwischen Männern und Frauen (Serie "Equal Pay Day 2025"). In: IAB-Forum H. 05.03.2025 Nürnberg. DOI:10.48720/IAB.FOO.20250306.02

Abstract

"Frauen in Deutschland verdienen im Schnitt deutlich weniger als Männer. Weniger bekannt ist, dass sich der sogenannte Gender-Pay-Gap zwischen einzelnen Regionen deutlich unterscheidet. So verdienen vollzeitbeschäftigte Männer in Dingolfing-Landau gut 40 Prozent mehr als vollzeitbeschäftigte Frauen, in Dessau-Roßlau 1,2 Prozent weniger. Eine wichtige Erklärung bieten regionale Geschlechterunterschiede in den ausgeübten Berufen und in der Betriebsstruktur vor Ort." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Galego, Aurora (2025): Recent trends in the gender wage gap in Portugal: a distributional analysis. In: Applied Economics Letters, Jg. 32, H. 3, S. 369-372. DOI:10.1080/13504851.2023.2270223

Abstract

"Portugal displays a persistent gender wage gap which increased during the 2010-2013 economic crisis. This paper aims at examining the developments in the gender wage gap for the private sector from 2009 to 2019 using a decomposition across the wage distribution. We conclude that the gap has decreased at the lower and middle quantiles but remains quite wide at the top. The largest part of the gap stems from the structure effect, which suggests persistent discrimination." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gartner, Hermann & Enzo Weber (2025): Die Lohnlücke schrumpft. Ein neuer Lohnmonitor soll aktuellere Daten für Forschung und Politik liefern. Die ersten Ergebnisse sind überraschend. In: Wirtschaftswoche H. 42, S. 35.

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Gartner, Hermann, Bajai Resch & Enzo Weber (2025): Der neue IAB-Lohnmonitor beleuchtet die aktuelle Lohnentwicklung in Deutschland. (IAB-Forschungsbericht 21/2025), Nürnberg, 22 S. DOI:10.48720/IAB.FB.2521

Abstract

"Die Lohnentwicklung ist eine zentrale Größe zur Charakterisierung der Arbeitsmarktentwicklung. Am IAB wird ein Monitor aufgebaut, mit dem die Lohnentwicklung in Deutschland beobachtet wird. Der IAB-Lohnmonitor basiert auf der IAB-Online-Personenbefragung „Arbeiten und Leben in Deutschland“ (IAB-OPAL). IAB-OPAL ist eine webbasierte Personenbefragung des IAB, die arbeitsmarktbezogene Themen abfragt. Es handelt sich um eine quartalsweise Befragung von je circa 7.500 Personen im erwerbsfähigen Alter (18–65 Jahre), in der wechselnde Fragen zu aktuellen Themen gestellt werden. Damit kann die Lohnverteilung auch nach Merkmalen wie Alter, Geschlecht, Ausbildung und Erwerbsumfang – ausgewertet werden. Auf Basis der Befragung lassen sich so zeitnahe Aussagen über die Entwicklung der Lohnungleichheit treffen. Ein Vorteil der Daten zum Beispiel gegenüber der Verdiensterhebung des Statistischen Bundesamts ist, dass bei IAB-OPAL auch der Haushaltskontext vorliegt. So können zum Beispiel Einkommen in Haushalten mit oder ohne Kinder verglichen werden. Ein Vorteil gegenüber Prozessdaten aus der Bundesagentur für Arbeit (wie dem SIAB des IAB) wiederum ist, dass auch die Löhne jenseits der Beitragsbemessungsgrenze sowie die Arbeitszeiten erfasst werden. Wir stellen in diesem Bericht die Datengrundlagen und die Aufbereitungsschritte vor und präsentieren erste Ergebnisse aus dem IAB-Lohnmonitor: So zeigt sich, dass im vierten Quartal 2023 der durchschnittliche Stundenlohn bei 23,54 Euro lag und bis zum zweiten Quartal 2025 auf 25,61 Euro stieg. Zugleich haben sich die Unterschiede zwischen niedrigeren und höheren Löhnen in diesem Zeitraum verringert. So legten die Löhne von Personen ohne Berufsabschluss zuletzt um 13 Prozent zu, die von Personen mit Hochschulabschluss hingegen nur um 5,8 Prozent. Ein Vergleich der Löhne von Männern und Frauen zeigt: Frauen haben im Schnitt der vergangenen vier Quartale 2025 im Durchschnitt um 15,3 Prozent pro Stunde weniger verdient als Männer. Der durchschnittliche Lohn von neu eingestellten Beschäftigten schwankt meist stärker als der von bereits länger Beschäftigten. Dies zeigte sich insbesondere in den ersten Quartalen 2024 und 2025: Die Löhne in länger bestehenden Beschäftigungsverhältnissen sind im ersten Quartal 2025 gegenüber dem Vorjahresquartal um 6,7 Prozent gestiegen, die in neuen Beschäftigungsverhältnissen dagegen um 21,5 Prozent. Im zweiten Quartal lag das Verhältnis nur noch bei 6,2 Prozent zu 7,5 Prozent. Der aktuelle IAB-Lohnmonitor soll in Zukunft mehrmals jährlich erscheinen." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Gash, Vanessa, Wendy Olsen, Sook Kim & Nadine Zwiener-Collins (2025): Decomposing the barriers to equal pay: examining differential predictors of the gender pay gap by socio-economic group. In: Cambridge Journal of Economics, Jg. 49, H. 4, S. 825-848. DOI:10.1093/cje/beaf025

Abstract

"Our article examines different predictors of the gender pay gap at the mean and for different income groups. Using the United Kingdom Household Panel Survey (UKHLS), we provide a detailed analysis of the effects of individual work histories, with up to 40 years of retrospective data examined alongside other key indicators. Work histories provide a powerful means of measuring the long-term effects of reduced labour force attachment on pay for women and for men. We find that gendered differentials in work-history account for 29% of the gender pay gap at the mean and that the effects of women’s reduced attachment vary by income group. We find men to earn a higher wage penalty to part-time work-histories than women, and find no evidence of a penalty to part-time work more generally in poor households. We conclude that gender equalisation policies need to reflect divergent needs by income group." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gebrewolde, Tewodros M., James Rockey & Akbar Ullah (2025): The global gender gap in labour income. In: Oxford economic papers, Jg. 77, H. 4, S. 1006-1036. DOI:10.1093/oep/gpaf011

Abstract

"This article introduces a new measure of economic gender inequality (EGI) based on the ratio of women’s share of national labor income to men’s. This measure captures both the principles of equal pay for equal work and nondiscrimination. Importantly, it can be calculated from existing data and is comparable between countries and over time. If we simply consider an unweighted average of our measure of EGI, there has been an improvement between 1994 and 2014. However, once we weight countries by population, average EGI has been increasing. Much of the higher EGI in poorer, more populous, countries is explained by the lower rates of female employment in those countries." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gerich, Joachim & Martina Beham-Rabanser (2025): Perceived fairness and legitimacy of parental workplace discrimination. In: Community, work & family, S. 1-27. DOI:10.1080/13668803.2025.2453175

Abstract

"Parental discrimination has been shown to be related to several risks, including impaired health, increased job stress, and decreased job satisfaction, which calls for increased awareness of parental discrimination. This paper analyzes fairness and legitimacy judgments of unequal treatment based on parental status at work and the antecedents that influence these judgments. Stereotypes of symbolic vilification that suggest lower commitment due to caring responsibilities, and symbolic amplification, which refers to rational economic organizational needs, are expected to rationalize discrimination. Moreover, we expect specific values and ideologies to be related to judgments of fairness and legitimacy, mediated by resonance with symbolic vilification and amplification. Analyses are based on survey data from a sample of employees aged between 20 and 45 years (n = 376). Respondents' evaluations of parental discrimination were measured using two fictional cases. The results suggest that greater acceptance of vilifying and amplifying justifications is triggered by a stronger preference for the ideal worker norm and traditional gender role expectations. Women tend to view discrimination as more unfair and illegitimate than men, while men's judgments are more strongly driven by economic reasoning." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Godechot, Olivier, Mirna Safi & Matthew Soener (2025): Organizational Intersectionality: Do Gender and Migration Status Inequalities Reinforce or Offset Each Other in French Workplaces? In: Work, Employment and Society, Jg. 39, H. 6, S. 1463-1485. DOI:10.1177/09500170251348848

Abstract

"This study examines whether organizations with significant pay gaps along one dimension (gender, migration status, class, etc.) tend to exhibit similarly high inequalities along other dimensions, or whether there is a trade-off between inequality dimensions. Using French administrative data, it estimates correlations between class, gender and migrant workplace earnings gaps, and studies how these gaps also relate to a fourth measure of intra-categorical inequality. To ensure robust results, this article introduces innovative methods to address measurement biases that may distort the relationship between earnings gaps. It establishes three key patterns. First, the gender gap is higher in more unequal workplaces. Second, the migrant gap is higher in more equal workplaces. Third, gender and migrant earnings gaps are negatively correlated within workplaces. These results suggest that workplace inequality regimes are shaped by both reinforcing and trade-off dynamics. Finally, this article explores factors influencing these patterns and highlights the role of industries." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))