The current paper investigates whether rising inequality and changes in returns to skills can explain the pattern of wage convergence over the 1980s in Australia or whether other explanations for the observed 'slow down'in female relative wage progress should be sought.

The current study examines the change in the gender wage gap in Australia over the period 1973 to 1990. The Juhn and Pierce (1991) decomposition is used in order to evaluate the role and relative contribution of changes in observed and unobserved skills and their prices.