Education and Gender Wage Differentials in Portugal: What Can We Learn From an Age Cohort Analysis?

Deep changes characterize the evolution of the Portuguese labor market concerning the average schooling of workers, particularly since the 1980s. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consequences of those changes in the gender wage gap. In particular, we analyze and compare the way that this process has evolved in the groups of young workers and older workers. Our findings suggest that the major part of the pay gap refers to employer discrimination practices for both age group cohorts: in the case of the younger workers, discrimination plays an increasing role in explaining the wage gap whereas for the older workers discrimination remains stable overtime. Furthermore, the attributes related to the characteristics of jobs are the major sources of the explained pay gap. In particular, the different way men and women are distributed among the sectors of industry is the main reason of the gap for both cohorts.