The Gender Wage Gap in France: the Role of Non-Cognitive Characteristics

Differences between men and women in non-cognitive skills could be the reason why the gender gap closing didn’t improve since the middle of the nineties. To investigate this issue in the case of France we used the "Génération 1998 à 10 ans" database conducted by the Céreq. This survey provides information on gender preferences differences in terms of career versus family, risk attitudes or the vision individuals have of their professional futures. As these non-cognitive factors are likely to influence wages but also occupational choices, the decomposition of wage differentials proposed by Brown, Moon and Zoloth (1980) is implemented. This makes it possible to consider this indirect mechanism by which non-cognitive variables can determine wages, but also the potentially discriminatory nature of occupational segregation. We find that differences in non-cognitive skills matter, 6.3% of the total gender wage gap, that is almost twice as experience, but a large part, 60% of the gap, remains unexplained by the characteristics considered in this work.