Changing Levels or Changing Slopes? The Narrowing of the U.S. Gender Earnings Gap, 1959-1999

Once educational attainment and other observable characteristics have been controlled for, studies show that the gender wage gap among adult full-time workers is about half the size it was in 1980. Using U.S. Census and Current Population Survey (CPS) data from 1959 through 1999, the authors assess the relative contributions of two factors to the decline in this gap: changes across cohorts in the relative rate of wage growth after labor market entry, and changes in relative earnings levels at labor market entry. They find that these slope changes, which are associated with post-schooling investments and work experience, account for only about one-third of the narrowing of the gender wage gap over the past 40 years, and that other factors, including a decline in the gap at labor market entry and a decline in discrimination, might also be at play