Does women’s employment growth increase wage inequalities between couples? The case of France between 1982 and 2014

Abstract

It has often been argued that women's employment growth is a factor that contributes to the increase in inequalities between households due, in particular, to an alleged reinforcement of social homogamy. In contrast to this idea, an accounting approach to inequality decomposition, based on Insee's Labour Force surveys (enquêtes Emploi) shows that wage inequalities between couples aged 30 to 59 remained stable between 1982 and 2014 in France, whereas they would have increased had women's employment rate not risen. This overall stability results from two converse developments, which are themselves linked to the strong growth in women's employment over this period: a fall in wage inequality between women and an increase in the correlation of partners' wages within couples. However, the almost uniform increase in women's employment rate, regardless of their partner's wage level, has limited the increase in the correlation of partners' wages and prevented an increase in wage inequalities between couples.

Educational Assortative Mating as a Determinant of Changing Household Income Inequality: A 21-Country Study

“…Research on the influence of partnering behavior on income inequality forms part of a larger literature documenting the role of family dynamics including family structure, female employment and the association between partners' earnings (Bouchet-Valat, 2017;Esping-Andersen, 2007;Kollmeyer, 2012;McLanahan and Percheski, 2008;Western et al, 2008). Among these factors, the influence of the correlation between partners' earnings on income inequality appears especially large (Frémeaux and Lefranc, 2015;Schwartz, 2013) and can explain between 20% and 50% of changes in income inequality over time in the United States (Schwartz, 2010).…”

Are Increasing Earnings Associations between Partners of Concern for Inequality? A Comparative Study of 21 Countries

“…Greenwood et al 2014;Harmenberg 2014;Hryshko, Juhn and McCue 2017;Kuhn and Ravazzini 2017;Pestel 2017) and studies that ask the question whether changes in this association over time have contributed to changes in inequality (e.g. Bouchet-Valat 2017;Grotti and Scherer 2017;Larrimore 2014;Nieuwenhuis, Van der Kolk and Need 2017;Schwartz 2010; see Cancian and Reed 1998;1999;and Gonalons-Pons 2017 for a similar argument regarding studies on the impact of female employment).…”

“…These studies ask (a variant of) the question how high inequality would be if employment rates and/or earnings associations between partners were to be as in the past (e.g. Bouchet-Valat 2017;Chen, Förster and Llena-Nozal 2013;Grotti and Scherer 2016;Larrimore 2014;Schwartz 2010). This type of study has relied on simulations using decomposition or reweighting methods instead of randomization.…”

“…A first sub-group of studies considers both processes together, whereas a second sub-group has conceptually separated changes in overall employment rates from changes in earnings similarity net of general changes in employment rates. Studies from the first group have generally shown that increases in female employment rates have reduced inequality, despite the inherently related increases in the earnings association (Bouchet-Valat 2017;Callan et al, 1998;Chen, Förster and Llena-Nozal 2013;Reed, 1998, 1999;Cancian and Schoeni, 1998;Del Boca and Pasqua 2003;Grotti and Scherer 2016;Mastekaasa and Birkelund 2011;Nieuwenhuis, Van der Kolk and Need 2017;one exception is Australia between 1982 and1997 according to Austen and Redmond 2013) 3 . On the contrary, studies that looked at changes in earnings similarity net of general changes in employment rates often concluded that changes in the earnings association have increased inequality.…”