The role of supervisors in the determination of wages and wage gaps

Abstract

This article considers labour market discrimination by supervisors as a potential contributor to racial and gender wage gaps. Empirical analysis reveals evidence that all workers, except Hispanic males, earn significantly higher hourly wages when working for a supervisor of the same race and sex as themselves. Furthermore, the results suggest that sex has a larger impact on wages than race for workers with white supervisors, while race has a larger impact on wages than sex for workers with minority supervisors. Based on past research, we theorize that the degree of labour discrimination workers face may also be dependent upon the location and size of the firm in which they are employed. However, decomposing the samples by firm location and size suggests that these two factors cannot adequately explain the observed matched supervisor-worker wage effects, which supports the notion that these wage effects are largely driven by factors other than supervisor discrimination.

Native-immigrant Wage Differentials in Malaysia

“…There are many other empirical studies exploring wage differentials in the labor market, especially in the United States (e.g. Butcher & DiNardo, 1998;Cohen & Haberfeld, 1991;Parrott, 2014;Pitts, Orozco-Aleman & Rezek, 2014) and European countries (e.g. Aldashev, Gernandt & Thomsen, 2008;Brenzel & Reichelt, 2015;Canal-Domínguez & Rodríguez-Gutiérrez, 2008;Joona, 2010;Karamessini & Ioakimoglou, 2007;Lehmer & Ludsteck, 2011).…”

Two tales of contraction: gender wage gap in Georgia before and after the 2008 crisis

“…Recent studies also underscore the role of household responsibilities in contributing to the presence of the gender wage gap by constraining women's engagement in labor markets (Maani and Cruickshank 2010). Arguably, employer discrimination can be an important factor contributing to the large unexplained portion of the gap (Pitts et al 2014). The examination of these questions in the Georgian context merits careful investigation in future work.…”