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Unraveling the gender wage gap : Exploring early career patterns among university graduates
Sandner, Malte; Yükselen, Ipek (2024): Unraveling the gender wage gapāÆ: Exploring early career patterns among university graduates, in: Scottish journal of political economyāÆ: the journal of the Scottish Economic Society, Oxford [u.a.]: Wiley-Blackwell, Jg. 72, Nr. 2, e12405, S. 1ā32, doi: 10.1111/sjpe.12405.
Faculty/Chair:
Author:
Title of the Journal:
Scottish journal of political economy : the journal of the Scottish Economic Society
ISSN:
1467-9485
0036-9292
Publisher Information:
Year of publication:
2024
Volume:
72
Issue:
2, e12405
Pages:
Language:
English
DOI:
Abstract:
A large body of literature has shown that the gender wage gap is small in the first years after graduation and increases gradually with age, largely because of family decisions, often a penalty caused by childbirth. However, the gender wage gap immediately after graduation has received less attention. Using a unique dataset that links 5000 university graduates with master's degrees or equivalent from a large German university to detailed employment records from the German social security register, we specifically analyze the gender wage gap at the first job and its dynamics during the initial years of their careers after graduation. We find that a significant gender wage gap already exists in the first job after graduation, even before most young individuals make family decisions. However, this gender wage gap decreases in the first year after entering the labor market and then increases slowly over time. We attribute this initial decrease in the gender wage gap to female university graduates experiencing greater returns from firm and occupational changes than their male counterparts. This suggests that women may use these changes to address skill mismatches, which are more common among women than men in their first job.
Keywords: ;ā ;ā
early career
gender wage gap
university graduates
Type:
Article
Activation date:
April 9, 2026
Versioning
Question on publication
Permalink
https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/114621