Sexual Orientation Wage Gap: The Role of Occupational Sorting and Human Capital

Posted: 2 Mar 2011

See all articles by Heather Antecol

Heather Antecol

Claremont McKenna College - Robert Day School of Economics and Finance; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Anneke Jong

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Michael D. Steinberger

Pomona College - Department of Economics

Date Written: July 1, 2008

Abstract

Using data from the 2000 U.S. Census, the authors explore two alternative explanations for the sexual orientation wage gap: occupational sorting, and human capital differences. They find that lesbian women earned more than heterosexual women irrespective of marital status, while gay men earned less than their married heterosexual counterparts but more than their cohabitating heterosexual counterparts. Results of a Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition indicate that the relative wage advantages observed for some groups of lesbians and gay men were mainly owing to greater levels of human capital accumulation (particularly education), while occupational sorting had little or no influence. The relative wage penalties that were observed in other cases, however, cannot be attributed either to differences in occupational sorting or to human capital. An analysis employing a DiNardo, Fortin, and Lemieux decomposition, which allows for variation in the wage gap at different points along the wage distribution, broadly confirms these results.

Keywords: Sexual Orientation Wage Gap

JEL Classification: J15, J31

Suggested Citation

Antecol, Heather and Jong, Anneke and Steinberger, Michael D., Sexual Orientation Wage Gap: The Role of Occupational Sorting and Human Capital (July 1, 2008). Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 61, No. 4, 2008, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1773035

Heather Antecol (Contact Author)

Claremont McKenna College - Robert Day School of Economics and Finance ( email )

500 E. Ninth Street
Claremont, CA 91711
United States

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Anneke Jong

affiliation not provided to SSRN

No Address Available

Michael D. Steinberger

Pomona College - Department of Economics ( email )

425 N. College Ave.
Claremont, CA 91711
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.economics.pomona.edu/steinberger/

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