The Persistence of the Gender Wage Gap in Germany
- The gender wage gap is remarkably persistent in Germany. Additionally it
is among the European Member states one of the highest. The paper ex-
amines the empirical data which allow analysing the gender wage gap; it
discusses the development of the gender pay gap over time, the trends in
wage inequality and the incidence of low pay. As institutional factors are
of certain importance, the paper describes the overall system of wage
determination, especially the minimum wage regulations. Important is the
treatment of gender way gaps in the equal pay legislation to date, which
is analysed in detail. As firm level decisions are of great importance to
constitute the gender wage gap, this aspect is discussed, too. The paper
summarizes the actual state of the art in empirical studies on the gender
pay gap in Germany and comes to the conclusion that relevant factors to
explain the persistence are mainly structural factors like vertical and hori-
zontal segregation, especially in the work place. Individual characteristics
of women and men (human capital endowments) do play a minor role, but
are still existent.