A short history of the gender wage gap in Britain

Abstract

After shrinking dramatically during the Second World War, the gender wage gap (GWG) narrowed again in the early 1970s due to the Equal Pay Act. The GWG has closed across birth cohorts at all points in the adult life-cycle but remains. Within birth cohort it rises to middle age before falling again. Among those born in 1958, the raw GWG was 16 percentage points among workers aged 23, rising to 35 percentage points at 42. Among those born in 1970 the gaps were 9 and 31 percentage points at age 26 and age 42 respectively. Differences in men’s and women’s work experience in mid-life account for much but not all of the raw gap in both cohorts. The GWG is a little larger early in the life cycle when accounting for non-random selection into employment but selection plays no role later in life. Policy options for closing the remaining gap are considered.

Teenage Conduct Problems: A Lifetime of Disadvantage in the Labour Market?

“…When months in education and training was also taken into account, women in the 1970 cohort had spent, on average, 13 months more time in EET than women in the 1958 cohort, although there was more variation for women in the more recent cohort. This reflects he changes be een cohor s no onl in omen s increased a achmen o he labo r market, but also in the delays in childbirth and a reduction in the average number of children women had in the more recent cohort (Bryson et al, 2020). Men in the more recent 1970 cohort had spent, on average, 12 months less time in employment than the earlier cohort.…”

“…Given some studies have shown conduct problems relate differently to labour market participation by sex in the 1970 cohort (Feinstein, 2000;Knapp et al 2011) and that the relationship with labour market participation has strengthened for women born in 1970 compared to women born in 1958 (Bryson et al 2020), we analyse these relationships for men and women separately.…”

Gender economics: an assessment

“…One of the more prevalent topics in gender economics deals with gender inequalities in the labour market in terms of the gender wage and representation gaps. Bryson et al (2020) offer a brief and informative historical overview of the gender wage gap and female representation in the labour market in the UK by comparing the 1958 and 1970 cohorts of women over the life cycle. Pre-war labour force participation was always high among women who were single, divorced, or widowed, and increased from around 65 per cent in the 1930s to about 79 per cent in 2019.…”

“…A variety of models have shown how wage discrimination arising from prejudice can survive when there are search frictions, as it can generate monopsony powers in unprejudiced firms (Black, 1995;Bowlus and Eckstein, 2002;Lang et al, 2005). The results from this literature call for policies addressing employers' monopsony wagesetting powers that allow women to be paid less than their marginal product because women are often less mobile or because their bargaining power is limited due to caring responsibilities (see Bryson et al (2020) and Blau and Kahn (2017) for a review).…”

The Gender Wage Gap Among University Vice Chancellors in the UK

“…The gender wage gap (GWG) has been closing, albeit gradually, in a number of countries over the last few decades (Kunze, 2018), including Britain (Bryson et al, 2020).…”