Industrial Sectors and the Determinants of Earnings: Male-Female Differences

Abstract

<p>Empirical studies confirm the existence of a male-female earnings differential in Canada, with females on the average receiving about half the earnings that males do. This dissertation attempts to the data used are from develop the most thorough and systematic model of earnings determination yet achieved in Canada, and to investigate the potential utility of a segmented economy approach to identify sources of male-female earnings inequalities. The earnings determination model includes individual earnings-related characteristics, background characteristics, and a measure of the industrial sector of the economy. The data used are from the 1973 Canadian Mobility Study and the Labour Force Survey. Findings indicate that women who are employed receive so little compared to men partly because they differ in the average levels of their income-related characteristics and partly because they differ in the processes by which they earn income. Of the two factors, however, the second is by far the most important source of income inequality between the sexes. When the economy is viewed as composed of three distinct economic sectors the core, the periphery and the state, the three sectors do appear to differ in the ways in which certain earnings-related characteristics are remunerated. Further, it appears as if the differences between men and women in their economic returns are not the same from sector to sector. The findings support two general conclusions in this regard. First, differences in returns for men and women are more frequent in the periphery than in either the core or state. Second, while still distinct, the processes by which men and women earn income are more similar in the state than in either the core or the periphery. In the state, men and women receive nearly equivalent economic returns to their human capital factors, such as education and experience, while this is not the case in the other two sectors.</p>