Gender composition and wages: Why is Canada different from the United
States?
by Michael Baker and Nicole Fortin
Business and Labour Market Analysis Division
Analytical Studies Branch research
paper series, No. 140
There has long been a belief that occupations that
tend to be dominated by women pay lower wages. This paper asks whether there is
any evidence in Canada to support this notion.
This study provides a comprehensive
picture, circa the late 1980s, of the occupational gender segregation in Canada
and its consequences for wages. It also draws explicit comparisons of our findings
to evidence for the United States. The results show that the link between female
wages and gender composition is much stronger in the United States than in Canada,
where it is generally small and not statistically significant. The relatively
more advantageous position of women in female jobs in Canada is found to be associated
with higher unionization rates and the industry-wage effects of "public goods"
sectors.
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