Education and gender wage differentials in Portugal: what can we learn from an age cohort analysis?

Important changes characterize the recent evolution of the schooling of workers in Portugal. 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 over time.