Wage Discrimination in Public Sector Workforces: Evidence from U.S. States

• In Event: The Nuances of Employment in the Public Sector

Abstract

There is a growing body of empirical research that demonstrates that discrimination influences employee wages. We test for discrimination in the public sector using detailed state government employee payrolls from 2010 to 2020 obtained from nine states. We first identify wage gaps by race and gender group. We then determine the extent to which those gaps are driven by direct and systemic discrimination using a Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method. Preliminary results from Arkansas show that policy changes in 2017 and 2021 that gave managers more wage-setting control reduced wage gaps between demographic groups. Our findings contribute to this literature by showing the extent to which direct and systemic discrimination contributes to race and gender wage gaps in the public sector.

Author

• John Stavick, University of Tennessee (Knoxville)
  Presenting Author