Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/186118 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 282
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Maastricht
Abstract: 
This paper studies to what extent gender differences in commuting patterns explain the observed disparities between husband and wife in relation to earnings and wages. It is argued that the cost of commuting is higher for women because they bear a disproportionate share of housework and child-rearing responsibilities. Therefore, female workers tend to work relatively close to home. A `job location wage gap' emerges because jobs located away from the central business district offer lower wages. Using pooled data from the American Community Survey, the results indicate that 10% of the gender pay gap among childless workers and more than 23% of the wage decline attributed to being a mother ("child pay penalty") are explained by sex differences in commuting patterns. A conditional Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition indicates that short commutes are strongly associated with working in low-paying occupations and industries.
Subjects: 
Gender pay gap
job location
wages
commute time
wage gradient
JEL: 
J31
R41
J61
R23
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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