An Empirical Analysis of Recent Trends in Gender Wage Differences for U.S. Workers

Abstract

This paper analyzes data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979 cohort) to assess recent trends in the wages of male and female workers in the U.S. labor market. Over the period 1990-2012, we observe two general wage trends for white, black and Hispanic females, relative to white males: First, all groups experienced a decline in their relative wage ratios; second, the portion of the wage gap due to gender differences in worker characteristics has also declined. These trends are especially pronounced following the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Our results are consistent with those found by other researchers.