Wage differentials and gender discrimination - Changes in Sweden 1981-98

The purpose of this article is to follow the development of the Swedish gender earnings gap through the 1980s and 1990s. We follow the changes in the wage gap and in factors to which it can be related year-by-year by analysing cross-sectional data from Statistics Sweden (HEK) for the years 1981 and 1983-98. The results show that the unadjusted wage gap varied between 12 and 15 per cent of the average male wage up to 1989, when the differentials began to increase. During the 1990s the size of the gap was around 14-18 per cent. In a decomposition analysis we find that the measured differences in jobs and qualifications between women and men can account only for between two-fifths and three-fifths of the gender wage gap, if they are assumed to be rewarded according to the male wage function. If the female wage function is applied, even less of the differentials are explained. Differences in the educational requirements for jobs have contributed considerably to gender earnings inequality. The impact has decreased over the period studied, however, and is about half as large in the 1990s as it was in the 1980s.