Since 2009, the German Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) provides a statistical tool - named Logib-D - for firms to measure their internal wage inequality voluntarily. We use our estimation model of firm-specific gender pay gaps, developed in the DFG...

We examine the occupational and wage mobility of employees with a vocational training degree obtained in the German dual system of apprenticeship training. The conceptual framework is based on the human capital theory and the search theory under the assumption of variation in occupational...

We analyze unemployment dynamics for Germany on a regional basis by means of an approximate factor model. We first estimate the number of factors corresponding to the number of cycles. At least for the pre-'Hartz' reform data we find strong evidence for more than just one dynamic labor market...

Empirical investigations with enterprise level data from official statistics often use the average wage as a proxy variable for the qualification of the workforce, mostly due to the lack of detailed information on the qualification of the employees. This paper uses unique newly available data...

On January 1st, 1997, minimum wages were introduced in the German main construction sector. We examine the effects of this wage regulation on various aspects of the labour market of this sector, particularly the effects on wages and employment. In East Germany, at the time of its introduction,...

The introduction of the minimum wage in the German painter and varnisher trade in 2003 is used as a natural experiment to study the effects of minimum wages on wages and employment. We find a significant positive effect on the average hourly wage of skilled workers in East Germany, but not in...

The introduction of a minimum wage in the care sector in August 2010 was the first time that a minimum wage was introduced in a health sector. Furthermore, in contrast to other industries with minimum wages, the care sector has continually increased in recent years. Our results show that...

Societal changes, such as the increasing number of divorces and the high proportion of non-married couples, lead to a rising importance of individual old-age incomes above the poverty line for women. Although this goal seems increasingly attainable due to a rise in female employment...

Over the course of higher education expansion and growing numbers of graduates, employers are supposed to have increasing difficulties to regard a higher education degree as reliable signal for productivity. As a consequence, they may take into account 'qualitative' differences such as...

We address the concerns about rising inequality in the German labour market after the implementation of the Hartz reforms between 2003 and 2005. We focus on the quality of new jobs started between 1998 and 2010 in West Germany in terms of job stability and level of earnings. Using social...