Analysing the Gender Wage Gap Using Personnel Records of a Large German Company

We use monthly personnel records of a large German company to analyse the gender wage
gap (GWG). Main findings are: (1) the unconditional GWG is 15 percent for blue-collar and
26 percent for white-collar workers; (2) conditional on tenure, entry age, schooling, and
working hours, the GWG is 13 percent for blue-collar as well as for white-collar workers; (3)
after additionally controlling for hierarchical levels, the GWG is less than 4 percent for bluecollar
and 8 percent for white-collar workers; (4) Oaxaca decompositions reveal that the
unexplained part of the GWG is 87 percent for blue-collar workers and 46 percent for whitecollar
workers; (5) males have larger absolute wage growths than females; (6) the relative
GWG gets larger with tenure for blue-collar but smaller for white-collar workers; (7) individual
absenteeism has no significant impact on the GWG; (8) the gender gap in absenteeism is
between 26 and 46 percent. Overall, the results are consistent with statistical discrimination
explanations of the gender wage gap, though we cannot rule out other forms of
discrimination. A simple model within the context of absenteeism and statistical discrimination
is offered.