Fields of Training, Plant Characteristics and the Gender Wage Gap in Entry Wages Among Skilled Workers: Evidence from German Administrative Data

This paper investigates the gender wage gap among skilled German workers after the end of vocational training using data from social security records. Using information on worker and plant characteristics for the training plant, results from standard decomposition techniques show that up to 92 % of an initial 14 % earnings disadvantage for women in the first job can be attributed to differences in endowments. Of these, occupational segregation explains up to two thirds of the earnings gap, with plant characteristics accounting for about 25 %.