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Article
Publication date: 1 May 2000

Rita Mano‐Negrin

Public versus private sector placement and gender‐based effects are examined as the prime generator of wage variations among men and women Israeli managers in Israel. The…

1776

Abstract

Public versus private sector placement and gender‐based effects are examined as the prime generator of wage variations among men and women Israeli managers in Israel. The macro‐sociological analysis of economic sectors, organizational theory and human capital effects are integrated to predict public/private sector variations in wages, taking account of managerial level and gender effects. Using demographic, human capital characteristics and managerial level position from a representative sample of 778 Israeli public and private sector employees, it is shown that wage variations are generated by initial placement in the public/private sector; higher returns to work hours, education and managerial position in the private sector, and “manhood” which increases returns to wages in both sectors taking account of managerial level variations. These results suggest that public/private sector wage differences are only partially explained by occupational and managerial level variations: taking into account the above variables, gender remains the major determinant of wages for both private and public sector employees.

Details

Women in Management Review, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0964-9425

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 August 2013

Paolo Ghinetti and Claudio Lucifora

The authors aim to investigate public‐private pay determination using French, British and Italian micro data from the 2001 ECHP (European Community Household Panel) and estimate…

Abstract

Purpose

The authors aim to investigate public‐private pay determination using French, British and Italian micro data from the 2001 ECHP (European Community Household Panel) and estimate public/private wage differentials by country. By focussing on different countries, they exploit institutional differences to gain insights on the process of pay formation.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use regression techniques to compute the pay premium both at the average and at different education/skill levels. They then decompose the observed differences into a part due to characteristics and another part due to different returns between sectors, also at different quantiles of the wage distributions within skills.

Findings

Even after controlling for observable characteristics, the authors find an overall positive wage differential for public sector workers in each of the three countries. As expected, the differential varies by skill. In general, the present findings do not fully support the view that the public (private) sector pays more (less) among the low skilled than the private (public) sector, and that the opposite is true for the highly skilled. The authors also document that the public pay premium varies as one moves up or down in the skill distribution.

Practical implications

On the one hand, the authors’ results confirm that the public sector acts in general as a “fair employer”, compressing pay dispersion with respect to the private sector. On the other hand, the interactions of public and private labour market institutional arrangements play a crucial role in shaping the structure of relative wages across sectors. For example, when the monopsony power in wage bargaining is relevant in both sectors as, for example, in Britain, the private sector pays in absolute value proportionally less, and also the public wage premium is smaller.

Originality/value

This is the first attempt to use comparable data for three countries to analyse public/private wage differences by skill levels and to link the evidence with differences in public/private wage setting regimes.

Article
Publication date: 11 August 2020

Robert Elliott, Daniel Kopasker and Diane Skåtun

Distinguishing what employers in different areas of Great Britain need to pay to attract and retain labour has been a central component of public-sector resource allocation…

Abstract

Purpose

Distinguishing what employers in different areas of Great Britain need to pay to attract and retain labour has been a central component of public-sector resource allocation decisions. This paper examines how changes in the pattern of spatial wage differentials following the global financial crisis have impacted on the formulae which allocate government funding to local government and health providers in the NHS.

Design/methodology/approach

Using employer-reported data on earnings, we examine spatial patterns of private-sector wages in Great Britain between 2007 and 2017. The method permits the analysis of finely defined geographical areas and controls for differences in industry and workforce composition to distinguish those differences that are attributable from unmeasured characteristics, such as differences between areas in the cost of living and amenities. These standardised spatial wage differentials (SSWDs) underpin the funding allocation formulae.

Findings

The analysis shows that since 2007 private-sector wage dispersion, both within and between regions, has reduced: lower paid areas have experienced a relative increase in wages and higher paid a relative decline. Over the period, there was a significant reduction in the London wage premium.

Originality/value

This paper demonstrates the importance of ensuring established policies are applied using contemporary data. The SSWDs used to distribute government funds have not been re-estimated for some time. As a result, the current resource allocation model has overcompensated the London region and undercompensated others during this period.

Article
Publication date: 25 July 2019

Alison Preston, Elisa Birch and Andrew R. Timming

The purpose of this paper is to document the wage effects associated with sexual orientation and to examine whether the wage gap has improved following recent institutional…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to document the wage effects associated with sexual orientation and to examine whether the wage gap has improved following recent institutional changes which favour sexual minorities.

Design/methodology/approach

Ordinary least squares and quantile regressions are estimated using Australian data for 2010–2012 and 2015–2017, with the analysis disaggregated by sector of employment. Blinder–Oaxaca decompositions are used to quantify unexplained wage gaps.

Findings

Relative to heterosexual men, in 2015–2017 gay men in the public and private sectors had wages which were equivalent to heterosexual men at all points in the wage distribution. In the private sector: highly skilled lesbians experienced a wage penalty of 13 per cent; low-skilled bisexual women faced a penalty of 11 per cent, as did bisexual men at the median (8 per cent penalty). In the public sector low-skilled lesbians and low-skilled bisexual women significant experienced wage premiums. Between 2010–2012 and 2015–2017 the pay position of highly skilled gay men has significantly improved with the convergence driven by favourable wage (rather than composition) effects.

Practical implications

The results provide important benchmarks against which the treatment of sexual minorities may be monitored.

Originality/value

The analysis of the sexual minority wage gaps by sector and position on the wage distribution and insight into the effect of institutions on the wages of sexual minorities.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 41 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 April 2018

Fatma Guven-Lisaniler, Gulcay Tuna and Ikechukwu Darlington Nwaka

How does wage employment differ from self-employment in Nigeria? The purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants of participation and the resulting wage differentials…

Abstract

Purpose

How does wage employment differ from self-employment in Nigeria? The purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants of participation and the resulting wage differentials with respect to individual employees in self-employment, public-wage employment and private-wage employment in the Nigerian labour market.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the most recent cross-sectional data from the general household survey (GHS) panel for 2012/2013 wave (Nigeria National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 2012), this paper applies the multinomial logit estimation for the sectoral choice and selectivity-corrected wage equation where appropriate.

Findings

Consistent with other studies in Africa, the findings confirm that the Nigerian labour market is heterogeneous. Factors affecting sectoral choices differ greatly across the analysed sectors. Education, age and geopolitical zones are observed to be the major determinants of sectoral participation. On the basis of BFG estimates, the authors find evidence of downward bias only in the public sector wages that is due to the (Bourguignon, Fournier & Gurgand) allocation of individuals with better unobservable characteristics out of the public employment into the self-employment. Consequently, the human capital variables become no longer significant in the public wage equation after correcting for selectivity bias. However, education and gender are found to be significant determinants of wages in the private and self-employment sectors. The magnitude of the gender coefficient is more negative in self-employment, which may imply a possible gender wage gap in that sector. While the North-East, North-West and South-South zones are highly statistically significantly different from zero in the public sector, only the South-South and South-West zones appear to be significant in self-employment. Hence, such zonal variables are a reflection of differences in economic incentives in Nigeria.

Research limitations/implications

Given the unregulated and precarious nature of employment in self-employment, adequate policies that address gender bias orientations are suggested.

Originality/value

This paper is one of the first that addresses sectoral choices and wage differentials among public, private and self-employment using the most recent GHS data for Nigeria.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 39 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 May 2016

Verena Tandrayen-Ragoobur and Rajeev Pydayya

This paper aims to analyse the magnitude of the gender wage disparity in the public and private sectors in Mauritius across both mean differentials and overall wage distribution…

1421

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyse the magnitude of the gender wage disparity in the public and private sectors in Mauritius across both mean differentials and overall wage distribution. The paper then decomposed the gender wage differential using the Oaxaca and Blinder (1973) decomposition technique.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses cross-sectional data from the Continuous Multi-Purpose Household Budget Survey (CMPHS), from 2006 to 2013. The sample size on average is around 12,000 households surveyed per year.

Findings

The results reveal that that gender wage differentials are prevalent in both economic sectors; however, the disparity is more pronounced in the private sector. In addition, the differences in wages are larger at the bottom compared to the top end of the wage distribution, suggesting the presence of sticky floors. Lastly, it was observed that the unexplained wage gap (discrimination) is higher in the private sector than in public sector across the years.

Originality/value

The literature on the gender wage gap in Africa is limited. This paper adds to the existing literature on gender wage differential with an analysis of the gender wage disparity across the public and private sectors in Mauritius.

Details

Gender in Management: An International Journal, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2413

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1991

K. Kioulafas, G. Donatos and G. Michailidis

This article examines the determination of wagedifferentials in the public and private sectors ofGreece. Also, it considers the effects of incomepolicies on the existing wage…

Abstract

This article examines the determination of wage differentials in the public and private sectors of Greece. Also, it considers the effects of income policies on the existing wage differentials for the period 1975‐85. The empirical analysis is based on the hypothesis that wages depend on labour productivity which is a function of certain measurable personal characteristics, such as education, experience and skill. The main findings are that the public sector pays higher wages than the private sector. The public sector also offers higher returns with respect to education and experience, while the private sector compensates more skilled workers. Finally, it is shown that there is a narrowing of existing wage differentials during the examined period especially on determinants expressing productivity‐related characteristics such as education, experience and skill.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 12 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1998

RITA ASPLUND

A common assertion, strongly supported by country‐specific empirical evidence, is that individual returns to investment in human capital change slowly over time. The research…

Abstract

A common assertion, strongly supported by country‐specific empirical evidence, is that individual returns to investment in human capital change slowly over time. The research results reported in this paper indicate that this is not necessarily the outcome if the economy, like the Finnish one at the turn of the decade (1980/90), undergoes rapid shifts in the activity level coupled with increasing turbulence in the labour market. Not surprisingly, the changes in wage conditions are stronger within the private sector. Less expected is perhaps the finding of highly differing effects among men and women employed in the same sector.

Details

Journal of Human Resource Costing & Accounting, vol. 3 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1401-338X

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2015

Jared J. Llorens

Compensation systems serve a critical role in strategic human resources management, and over the past twenty-five years, there have been an increasing number of public sector…

Abstract

Compensation systems serve a critical role in strategic human resources management, and over the past twenty-five years, there have been an increasing number of public sector reform efforts aimed at better aligning compensation practices with institutional workforce needs. While many past reforms have been performance driven, the nationʼs most recent economic downturn has served as potent catalyst for a renewed focus on public sector compensation, particularly reforms to public sector retirement benefits. However, given the traditional importance of public sector retirement benefits within broader bureaucratic structures, these new reforms hold the potential to substantially alter human capital capacity in the public sector. Using wage and retirement benefit data from the U.S. Census Bureauʼs Current Population Survey and National Compensation Survey, this paper finds that state and local governments face significant threats to their long-term human capital capacity in light of potential benefit reforms that place a disproportionate emphasis upon competitive wage rates.

Details

International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1093-4537

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2003

Vera Adamchik, Thomas Hyclak and Arthur King

Analyzes the wage structure and wage distribution for male and female Polish workers during a more mature phase of a transition to a market economy, namely 1994‐2001. The results…

1269

Abstract

Analyzes the wage structure and wage distribution for male and female Polish workers during a more mature phase of a transition to a market economy, namely 1994‐2001. The results indicate an overall rise in earnings inequality for both genders during this period. Contrary to conventional expectations, changes in the composition of employment caused by a deep restructuring process did not have a significant impact on earnings inequality. Throughout this period, the changes in the wage structure and wage distribution were almost entirely due to the changes in returns to worker characteristics. However, does not observe the “explosion of differentials at all levels,” predicted by many leading models on transition. Wage structures for men and women evolved in different ways. This analysis suggests that the effect of changes in labor supply and institutional factors on the wage structure and wage distribution was relatively unimportant. Demand side factors seem to be far more important in explaining the dynamics of earnings inequality in Poland during 1994‐2001.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 24 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

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