Gender differences in entry wages and early career wages

Abstract

This paper investigates the gender wage gap in entry wages and in the early career for German skilled workers in the period 1975-1990. We use a new administrative longitudinal data source that allows to observe complete work and skill accumulation histories from the beginning for up to 13 years in the labour market. Descriptives show an entry wage differential of 22 percent between male and female full-time workers. Furthermore, the differential stays almost constant throughout the first 8 eight years in the labour market. Among the factors that explain the entry wage gap, premarket choices of training schemes are found to be particular important. Gender differences in the timing of work account only for a small fraction of the gap during the early years of the career.