The Effect of Gender and Race Differentials on Public-Private Wage Comparisons: A Study of Postal Workers

The Representation of Immigrants in Federal, State, and Local Government Work Forces

“…In general, gender and racial/ethnic pay disparities among comparably educated and experienced employees tend to be smaller in the public than in the private sector (Borjas 1980;Asher and Popkin 1984;Singell 1991;Logan, Alba, and Stults 2003;Katz, Stern, and Fader 2007). Those pay patterns, plus stronger formal protections against discrimination, help explain women's and minorities' higher preference for public sector employment (Blank 1985;Lewis and Frank 2002;Cohen, Zalamanovitch, and Davidesko 2006;Llorens, Wenger, and Kellough 2008).…”

Postal service compensation and the comparability standard

“…Principal areas of disagreement (see footnote 4) have centered on specification issues regarding union status, employer size, race and gender, and industry coding. For example, Asher and Popkin (1984) propose a standard whereby postal wages are compared implicitly to wages for private sector workers who are white, male, unionized, in large firms, in transportation, communication, and utility industries (TCU). Calculations from the April 1993 CPS benefits supplement indicate that white male union workers in firms with 1,000 or more workers account for only 5.6% of the private sector labor force; the figure is reduced further to 1.4% if it is restricted to TCU.…”

“…Union Status CPS estimates of the postal premium by Asher and Popkin (1984) and Belman and Voos (1997), among others, are based on specifications including a control for union status, wherein unionized postal and non-postal workers are coded as one for union status. This has the effect of comparing bargaining unit postal workers to the small minority of private sector workers who are unionized, and a small number of nonunion postal workers to workers in the large nonunion private sector.…”

“…Some postal studies have included firm size (Asher and Popkin, 1984) or firm and establishment size (Belman and Voos, 1997). If one is going to control for employer size, it is generally appropriate to control for both since they may measure distinct wage determinants and each has an independent effect (Brown and Medoff, 1989).…”

“…As outlined previously, we have argued for adoption of an all-industry comparison, with weights across industries based on private sector employment. An alternative view is that postal workers should be compared to workers in transportation, communication, and utility (TCU) industries (e.g., Asher and Popkin, 1984;Belman and Voos, 1997). This is effected by inclusion of broad industry dummies, with postal workers coded as one for TCU.…”