Abstract:Are state governments fulfilling their responsibilities to be model employers of women and minorities? Using U.S. Census Bureau data on individual employees from 1980 to 2015, this article looks at how much progress state governments have made toward eliminating racial and gender pay differences. It examines whether differences in education, age/experience, citizenship, English ability, hours worked, and occupation explain the pay differences. Patterns and explanations vary substantially by group, but state go… Show more
“…First, we test our hypotheses with data from a country that ranks among the top in the world for gender equity, and one offering a number of legal protections in both the public and private sector labour markets to prevent wage discrimination (Borchorst and Siim ; Borchorst and Jørgensen ). While we suggest caution when generalizing outside of the Scandinavian and Nordic contexts during this time period, the findings from Denmark provide additional evidence on public sector wage inequalities that have originated mostly from the US context (e.g., Lewis , ; Lewis and Nice ; Miller et al ; Budig ; Meier and Wilkins ; Alkadry and Tower ; Llorens et al ; Reese and Warner ; Lewis et al ). The observation of gender‐based inequalities in public employment in a nation that ranks among the highest in the world in gender equality speaks to the persistence of the phenomenon.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 74%
“…Transparency in public sector pay and the availability of employee salary information may mitigate or suppress gender‐based wage inequalities among women and men, relative to their private sector counterparts. We test the following hypothesis: H2 : The wage inequality faced by women professionals relative to men will be smaller in the public sector than in the private sector.In the United States, researchers find that while gender‐based pay inequality exists in both sectors, the inequality faced by women relative to their male counterparts is smaller in the public sector (Llorens et al , p. 405; Lewis et al ). We extend this previous research and consider whether public sector employment may also minimize the wage gap among equivalent men and women professionals in Denmark.…”
Section: Literature and Hypothesesmentioning
confidence: 98%
“…In this article, we ask: Does public sector employment limit the pay inequality among men and women professionals in the Danish public sector compared to the Danish private sector? Previous research conducted in the United States finds that gender-based wage inequality persists in public sector employment (e.g., Meier and Wilkins 2002;Alkadry and Tower 2006;Llorens et al 2008;Reese and Warner 2012;Lewis et al 2018). However, there have not been widespread investigations of public and private sector differences in gender-based wage inequalities among comparable employees.…”
In many countries, the rules and statutes governing public employment promote both transparency and accountability in employee hiring, promotion, and wage setting. These aspects of public employment might mitigate the pay inequalities women face in the public workplace relative to the private sector. At the same time, these formal aspects of public sector employment and payment systems might also limit the ability of women in the public sector to leverage human capital increases as a means of reducing pay inequalities. Utilizing 25 years of employee‐level data from Denmark, we find that women professionals in the Danish public sector face a smaller wage penalty than their private sector counterparts. However, our findings also suggest that public employment may place structural limits on their ability to leverage educational attainment to close the gap even further.
“…First, we test our hypotheses with data from a country that ranks among the top in the world for gender equity, and one offering a number of legal protections in both the public and private sector labour markets to prevent wage discrimination (Borchorst and Siim ; Borchorst and Jørgensen ). While we suggest caution when generalizing outside of the Scandinavian and Nordic contexts during this time period, the findings from Denmark provide additional evidence on public sector wage inequalities that have originated mostly from the US context (e.g., Lewis , ; Lewis and Nice ; Miller et al ; Budig ; Meier and Wilkins ; Alkadry and Tower ; Llorens et al ; Reese and Warner ; Lewis et al ). The observation of gender‐based inequalities in public employment in a nation that ranks among the highest in the world in gender equality speaks to the persistence of the phenomenon.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 74%
“…Transparency in public sector pay and the availability of employee salary information may mitigate or suppress gender‐based wage inequalities among women and men, relative to their private sector counterparts. We test the following hypothesis: H2 : The wage inequality faced by women professionals relative to men will be smaller in the public sector than in the private sector.In the United States, researchers find that while gender‐based pay inequality exists in both sectors, the inequality faced by women relative to their male counterparts is smaller in the public sector (Llorens et al , p. 405; Lewis et al ). We extend this previous research and consider whether public sector employment may also minimize the wage gap among equivalent men and women professionals in Denmark.…”
Section: Literature and Hypothesesmentioning
confidence: 98%
“…In this article, we ask: Does public sector employment limit the pay inequality among men and women professionals in the Danish public sector compared to the Danish private sector? Previous research conducted in the United States finds that gender-based wage inequality persists in public sector employment (e.g., Meier and Wilkins 2002;Alkadry and Tower 2006;Llorens et al 2008;Reese and Warner 2012;Lewis et al 2018). However, there have not been widespread investigations of public and private sector differences in gender-based wage inequalities among comparable employees.…”
In many countries, the rules and statutes governing public employment promote both transparency and accountability in employee hiring, promotion, and wage setting. These aspects of public employment might mitigate the pay inequalities women face in the public workplace relative to the private sector. At the same time, these formal aspects of public sector employment and payment systems might also limit the ability of women in the public sector to leverage human capital increases as a means of reducing pay inequalities. Utilizing 25 years of employee‐level data from Denmark, we find that women professionals in the Danish public sector face a smaller wage penalty than their private sector counterparts. However, our findings also suggest that public employment may place structural limits on their ability to leverage educational attainment to close the gap even further.
“…Interestingly, the effects of representation are more pronounced in private nonprofit research universities, where women make up a majority of managerial staff and senior faculty. Lewis, Boyd, and Rahul Pathak () find that state governments are doing a better job of achieving pay equity than private sector firms. Guul’s () assessment of vocational training suggests that communication by means of gender matching may improve citizen outcomes regardless of organizational gender diversity.…”
“…In fact, this issue is the second we have produced in the past 6 months with focus on that topic. Looking back to issue 78(3), we saw five strong pieces that examined inequitable public participation (Clark 2018), disparities between men and women in academia (Rabovsky and Lee 2018), pay equity (Lewis, Boyd, and Pathak 2018), performance improvement through gender matching (Guul 2018), and the role of gender differences in managerial networking (Rho and Lee 2018). Looking back to previous years, we see a steady trend of research concerned with social equity in various settings and from various perspectives.…”
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