Gender differences in pay among recent graduates: private sector employees in Ireland

Abstract

In this paper we seek to investigate the role of different factors in accounting for the differences in earnings among recent graduates working in the private sector in Ireland. Three years after graduation there is a pay gap of 8 per cent in hourly wages between male and female graduates in the private sector and a 4 per cent non-significant gap in the public sector. Our analyses suggest that there are four main factors behind the pay gap in the private sector: first, differential returns to educational capital for male and female graduates; second, differential returns to employment experience for male and female graduates; third, gender differences in field of study, and differences in the rewards attached to these fields; fourth, working in a female-dominated workplace, which has a negative influence on earnings for both men and women but predominantly affects women.

Keywords:

• employment
• gender
• higher education

Notes

1. Full details on the sampling procedure, fieldwork and weighting procedures are available in Russell et al. (2005).

2. Information was collected on usual gross earnings (before tax and social insurance contributions) and pay period to which these earnings related. Using the pay period these were standardized to weekly wages. Hourly wages were calculated by dividing the latter figure by usual hours worked.

3. This interaction between gender and first-class honours is significant at the .001 level.

4. The interaction between sex and gender composition is insignificant as is the interaction between female manager/boss and sex.

5. This is true even if sector is added to the model before any of the other institutional variables.

6. The participation model includes analytical/communication skills scores and social values orientation along with variables used in the wage equation to predict selection into the private sector. Results are available from the first author.

7. See McGinnity et al. (2009) for a recent study of discrimination on the grounds of nationality in Ireland. See Correll et al. (2007) for an experiment testing gender and parenthood effects in the USA