Skill Specificity of Upper-Secondary Training Occupations and the Gender Pay Gap

Abstract

Gender disparities in wages are still fairly large. On average, women earn less than men from the beginning of their careers. This article investigates whether young men and women with vocational education and training receive different returns for occupation-specific and general skills, a topic that has hitherto received little attention. Theoretically, we draw on a culturalist approach, as well as on the varieties of capitalism approach. The analyses are based on a combination of detailed occupation-level data on the specificity of training occupations and individuallevel data from the Swiss Labour Force Survey on the incomes of upper-secondary vocational diploma holders. The results of multilevel regression models show that men's and women's incomes are affected by a complex interplay between gender and skill endowment. Occupation-specific vocational skills only secure a high income early in the careers of men who trained in male-typed or genderneutral occupations. Women profit from a high proportion of general knowledge in their training. Furthermore, we find evidence for a general devaluation of female-typed skills. In sum, the findings suggest that employers' discriminatory remuneration practices, a general devaluation of female-typed skills and young people's rational skill investment decisions contribute jointly to the gender gap in income.

Gendered ethnic choice effects at the transition to upper secondary education in Switzerland

“…The reason for this is seen in the fact that where a relatively high proportion of persons in a population acquire an academic track, the educational and occupational aspirations within this group are already pronounced. In education systems with a high degree of vocational specificity (Müller and Shavit, 1998 ), this is particularly the case for women, for whom the motivation to begin an academic track might be seen as a means to prevent them from being pushed into female-dominated, dead-end, and lower paying jobs after attaining a VET diploma (Buchmann and Charles, 1995 ; Estévez-Abe, 2006 ; Gundert and Mayer, 2012 ; Grønning et al, 2020 ). In such a context, a relatively high proportion of women aspires to enter occupations for which a higher education entrance qualification is required.…”

Skill Endowment Through Vocational Education and Training Programmes and Early Career Mobility

“…This can in turn enhance diploma holders' productivity and signal high motivation and trainability (Hanushek et al, 2017;Li et al, 2000). Furthermore, general knowledge hardly depreciates and is highly transferable, because it can be used in various occupations across the labour market and thus also throughout one's career (Estévez-Abe, 2012;Grønning et al, 2020b). More general education may therefore give individuals access to equal-or higher-status positions, even after a period out of the workforce or in occupational subsegments other than their training occupation.…”

Widerstand als Selbstbehauptung

“…Ebenso hält sich trotz diverser bildungspolitischer Initiativen hartnäckig eine Geschlechtersegregation bzw. Reproduktion von Geschlechterungleichheiten innerhalb der Berufsbildung aufrecht (Buchmann und Kriesi, 2012;Grønning, Kriesi und Sacchi, 2020;Kriesi und Basler, 2020;Leemann und Imdorf, 2011;Makarova, Aeschlimann und Herzog, 2019;Schwiter et al, 2014). Nicht zuletzt finden seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre immer weniger Jugendliche einen Ausbildungs-bzw.…”