Inhalt: This paper explores earnings inequalities within dual-earner couples in East and West Germany drawing on household-level panel data from 1992 to 2016. It has three aims: (1) to analyze how the partner pay gap (the pay gap between partners within one household) has developed over time, given institutional change, and whether the extent of inequality and temporal development vary between East and West Germany; (2) to explore variation in the partner pay gap by male partners' absolute earnings; and (3) to investigate the micro-level determinants of earnings inequalities within couples and determine whether their relevance varies between East and West Germany as well as by male partners’ absolute earnings. We find women earn substantially less than their partners, and our regression results find no indication of a declining partner pay gap. Besides substantial variation between East and West Germany, our results also reveal important group-specific variation in the extent of the partner pay gap as well as in its determinants.

Schlagwörter:Dual Career Couple; alte Bundesländer; Erwerbsbeteiligung; old federal states; Haushaltseinkommen; Einkommensunterschied; partnership; Federal Republic of Germany; household income; woman; difference in income; neue Bundesländer; Partnerschaft; labor force participation; gender-specific factors; New Federal States; dual career couple; Ungleichheit; inequality; gender inequality; institutional change; partner pay gap; time trends; German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) (1992-2016)

SSOAR Kategorie:Arbeitsmarktforschung, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung

Verfügbarkeit:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2019.102348

Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz

Inhalt: This study examines how within-couple inequalities, that is power differences between men and women in a partnership, act as predictors of transitions from full-time to part-time employment applying Heckman corrected probit models in three different institutional and cultural contexts; Eastern Germany, Western Germany and the United Kingdom. The analyses show that when women are in a weaker position within their relationships they are more likely to drop-out of full-time work, but that this propensity varies by context. The authors also find an increased tendency over time for women to leave full-time for part-time employment in both Eastern and Western Germany, but observe no such trend in the UK. This is suggestive of ongoing incompatibilities in the institutional support for equality in dual-earning in Germany. The study uses longitudinal data covering the period 1992 until 2012 from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) for Germany and from the British Household Panel (BHPS) and the ‘Understanding Society’ data for the UK.

Schlagwörter:alte Bundesländer; Erwerbsbeteiligung; Arbeitsteilung; old federal states; part-time work; Haushaltseinkommen; division of labor; Hausarbeit; housework; partnership; Federal Republic of Germany; household income; Großbritannien; Teilzeitarbeit; neue Bundesländer; Partnerschaft; labor force participation; Great Britain; gender-specific factors; New Federal States; Ungleichheit; inequality; cross-national comparison

SSOAR Kategorie:Arbeitsmarktforschung, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung

Verfügbarkeit:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2016.09.001

Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz