| Nic McPhee. "Editing A Paper". 1-26-08 via Flickr. CC A-SA 2.0. |
"What accounts for the difference in earnings between men and women? According to the literature, observable factors that affect pay—such as education, job experience, hours of work, and so on—explain no more than 50 percent of the wage gap. The most recent studies, as reported in a review by economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn (2000), found that the fraction explained is now even lower, about 33 percent. The reason is that the decrease in the gender gap in earnings was largely due to an increase in the productive attributes of women relative to men. The remainder of the gap—termed the residual—is the part that cannot be explained by observable factors. This residual could result from workers’ choices or, alternatively, from economic discrimination. Surprisingly, the differing occupations of men and women explain only 10–33 percent of the difference in male and female earnings. The rest is due to differences within occupations, and part of that is due to the observable factors. In just about any year chosen, the ratio of women’s to men’s earnings decreases with age and rises with education. Most telling is that the ratio is higher for single than for married individuals, particularly for those without children. Family responsibilities have been an important factor in slowing women’s occupational advancement over the life cycle."
My Paraphrase
Why is there a difference in pay between men and women? Published texts say that education, job experience, and time spent working among other observable details are less than half of the cause. Recently the gap has gotten smaller because women have become more skilled, and the remaining part of the gap is the part we can't explain by observation. Even the occupation that attract different genders explain less than a third of the gap. It's also notable that the gap gets smaller when women are more educated and worry less about their family.
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