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Title: Discontinuous Labor Force Participation and Its Effect on Women's Market Earnings
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Polachek, Solomon W.
Discontinuous Labor Force Participation and Its Effect on Women's Market Earnings
In: Sex, Discrimination, and the Division of Labor. CB Lloyd, ed. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1975
Cohort(s): Mature Women
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Keyword(s): Discrimination; Discrimination, Sex; Job Training; Labor Force Participation; Occupational Segregation; Sex Roles; Sexual Division of Labor; Wage Gap; Wages

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper reports on the male/female wage differential and the reasons for its existence. One can conclude from the results neither that the "unexplained" portion of the wage gap is attributable to discrimination, nor, for that matter, that the "explained" portion is not affected by discrimination. That is, if a distinction were made between direct discrimination (the payment of differing wage rates for the same work) and indirect discrimination (the subtle socialization process of the division of labor within the household, which discourages most women from making a complete commitment to the labor market), we would find that the "unexplained" wage gap is an upper limit of direct discrimination, while the total wage gap is a reflection of discrimination in its indirect form. If the division of labor within the family is equated with discrimination, then no studies of wage differentials would be necessary because all differentials would, by definition, be caused by discrimination. The importance of continuous work experience as the major causal factor determining male-female wage differentials must be emphasized. The fact that females are, on the average, out of the labor force over ten years causes a decline in their initial human capital investment as well as a depreciation of already existing earnings potential. The result of this discontinuous labor force participation is that females both enter occupations requiring lesser amounts of training and train less even when in professions typified by much on-the-job training. As a result, we observe females being overrepresented in lower-paying occupations while also receiving lower pay in the higher-paying professions.
Bibliography Citation
Polachek, Solomon W. "Discontinuous Labor Force Participation and Its Effect on Women's Market Earnings" In: Sex, Discrimination, and the Division of Labor. CB Lloyd, ed. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1975