Analysing the Gender Wage Gap Using Personnel Records of a Large German Company

We use monthly personnel records of a large German company to analyse the gender wage gap (GWG). Main findings are: (1) the unconditional GWG is 15 percent for blue-collar and 26 percent for white-collar workers; (2) conditional on tenure, entry age, schooling, and working hours, the GWG is 13 percent for blue-collar as well as for white-collar workers; (3) after additionally controlling for hierarchical levels, the GWG is less than 4 percent for blue-collar and 8 percent for white-collar workers; (4) Oaxaca decompositions reveal that the unexplained part of the GWG is 87 percent for blue-collar workers and 46 percent for white-collar workers; (5) males have larger absolute wage growths than females; (6) the relative GWG gets larger with tenure for blue-collar but smaller for white-collar workers; (7) individual absenteeism has no significant impact on the GWG; (8) the gender gap in absenteeism is between 26 and 46 percent...