Sex Differences in Earnings

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Abstract
Industrial sectors and authority hierarchies are examined as an explanation for women's lower earnings compared with men's. Sectoral location and authority position are found to have independent additive effects on earnings; these effects, however, differ by sex. Women are more likely to achieve higher authority positions within the peripheral sector, and men occupy similar authority positions across sectors. Men receive slightly higher benefits from being in the core sector, and although industrial sector and authority position do not interact for either women or men, men receive greater benefits from high authority positions than do women. The additional control for human capital variables did not reduce substantially the female-male earnings gap, but we did find that the human capital variables operate differently for women and men over industrial sectors. Whereas core and periphery men seem to be similarly advantaged and disadvantaged by various human capital variables, these variables are substantially more predictive of earnings for women in the periphery sector than in the core sector. Finally, we found that having a college degree varies in importance across authority levels for men in the core sector.