https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7871-3567
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ABSTRACT
This article examines the gender wage gap in Israel – almost the highest gap among OECD countries in 2021. Using the PIAAC data to estimate wage equations and the wage gap, it shows that the main explanations for the gap are the difference in working hours between males and females, as well as differences in numeracy skills and the use of these skills at work. It concludes that public policy for narrowing the wage gap must include actions to encourage females to take full-time jobs and to encourage girls at school to take more advanced STEM courses.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. See charts LMF 1.5.A and LMF 1.5.C OECD Family Database, https://www.oecd.org/social/family/database.html.
2. Debowy et al, “Returns”; Shahor et al, “Wage Gap”; Jelnov et al, “The Sensitivity”; and Neuman and Oaxaca, “Wage Differentials.”
3. Klinov, “What is Visible”; Frish, “The Causal Effect”; and Haberfeld et al, “Ethnicity.”
4. Melzer, “Education Return”; Shahor, “The Effect.”
5. Neuman and Oaxaca, “Wage Differentials”, 221–3. The authors indicate that for policymakers who were interested in salary equity, the relevant decomposition was decomposition #1. Therefore, we use this decomposition in this research.
6. Shahor et al, “Wage Gap”; Adnan and Miaari, “Voting Patterns”; and Geva, “Wage Gap.”
7. See, for example, Oaxaca, “Male-Female”; Neumark, “Employers”; Cebrian and Moreno, “The Effects”; Shahor et al, “Wage Gap”; and Park, “Education-Job Mismatch.”
8. Oaxaca, “Male-Female”; Blinder, “Wage Discrimination”; Neumark, “Employers’ Discriminatory Behavior”; Oaxaca and Ransom, “On Discrimination”; Reimers, “Labor Market”; and Cotton, “On the Decomposition of Wage.”
9. Heckman, “Sample Selection Bias.”
10. Neuman and Oaxaca, “Wage Differentials”, 221–3.
12. Gafni and Siniver, “Is There a Motherhood Wage Penalty?”; Fuchs, “Gender Gaps.”
13. For more details on the PIAAC data, see for example Rebollo-Sanz and De La Rica, “Gender gaps in skills.”
14. Neuman and Oaxaca, “Wage Differentials”; Shahor et al, “Wage Gap”; Debowy et al, “Returns”; Bental et al, “Ethnic.”
15. See Shahor, “The Effect”; Gafni and Siniver, “Is There a Motherhood Wage Penalty?” among others.
16. See, for example, Olivetti, “Changes.”
17. Swaffield, “Estimates,” Table A1; Εrosa et al, “A Quantitative Theory” found 30%-45% difference of working hours accumulation between 40-years-old males and females. In Meurs, Pailhe and Ponthieux, “Child-related Career Interruptions,” the difference between potential and actual work experience is −8.5% for males and −16% for females. See also Blau and Kahn, “Swimming Upstream.”
18. Cohen and Stier, “The rise.”
19. See, for example, Zoch, “Public Childcare”; Boeckmann et al, “Cultural.”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Yaakov Gilboa
Yaakov Gilboa is a former senior lecturer in economics at Sapir Academic College and a founding member of the Department of Applied Economics and Management in the college.