Modes of Job Entry and Gender Earnings Disparities

• In Event: 171 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Paper Session. The Changing Nature of Work in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

As decreasing opportunities for firm-internal promotions cause more professional employees to switch employers, research shows that men benefit more from firm-external mobility than women do. While labor market research suggests that these differences arise during the hiring process, organizational research points to gender-specific challenges in organizations that allow disparities to emerge among externally hired employees after job entry.
I use longitudinal personnel records of a large U.S. employer (2005-2013) to adjudicate between these perspectives. I find that the initial gender gap is equally wide among externally hired and internally promoted employees. Over time however, gender differences widen quickly among externally hired employees as hired women receive smaller pay raises. This suggests that while switching employers might not disadvantage women right away, externally hired women fall behind quickly once they are on the job. This calls for a greater focus on gender-specific organizational mechanisms that affect individuals after they switch employers.

Author

• Anne Kathrin Kronberg, Emory University