Sex Segregation and Wage Gaps in East and West Germany

Abstract

In this paper we examine occupational and firm-level sex segregation and their relationship with wages in West Germany and in East Germany, where anti-discrimination policies were recently implemented. We employ a representative sample of social-security wage records from 1992 and 1995, including a matched employer-employee sub-sample. We find large differences in the size of the wage gap, but not in the degree of segregation across the two parts of Germany. In contrast to U.S. literature German wages are not lower in predominantly female occupations. Conditioning on unobservable taste and labor quality differences, there is a small wage impact of sex segregation in both parts of Germany. Finally, by 1992 the East German wage structure appears as stable as that of West Germany.