The Public Sector Pay Gap in a Selection of Euro Area Countries

Giordano, Raffaela; Depalo, Domenico; Pereira, Manuel Coutinho; Eugène, Bruno; Papapetrou, Evangelia; Pérez, Javier J.; Reiss, Lukas; Roter, Mojca

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1965450

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The Public Sector Pay Gap in a Selection of Euro Area Countries

ECB Working Paper No. 1406

42 Pages Posted: 15 Dec 2011

See all articles by Raffaela Giordano

Evangelia Papapetrou

Bank of Greece; National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Mojca Roter

Bank of Slovenia

Date Written: November 28, 2011

Abstract

We investigate the public-private wage differentials in ten euro area countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain). To account for differences in employment characteristics between the two sectors, we focus on micro data taken from EU-SILC. The results point to a conditional pay differential in favor of the public sector that is generally higher for women, at the low tail of the wage distribution, in the Education and the Public administration sectors rather than in the Health sector. Notable differences emerge across countries, with Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain exhibiting higher public sector premia than other countries.

Keywords: wage differentials, public/private sector

JEL Classification: J310, J450, O520

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Giordano, Raffaela and Depalo, Domenico and Pereira, Manuel Coutinho and Eugène, Bruno and Papapetrou, Evangelia and Perez, Javier J. and Reiss, Lukas and Roter, Mojca, The Public Sector Pay Gap in a Selection of Euro Area Countries (November 28, 2011). ECB Working Paper No. 1406, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1965450 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1965450