"Evaluative Discrimination": Job Evaluation as a Blind Spot in the Analysis of the Gender Pay Gap

Women in Germany earn on average 18 percent less per hour than men. Vertical and horizontal lines of segregation and differences in the extent of employment and in the career paths of women and men have been statistically identified as explanatory factors for this difference. So far, however, it is unclear what significance job evaluation has for the gender pay gap and what role evaluative discrimination plays in the structure of earnings. The analyses presented in this lecture provide for the first time a statistical basis for testing the assumptions of the devaluation hypothesis. It is assumed that the occupational demands and burdens of women are valued less highly, and thus also remunerated less than those of men, and that a gender differentiated job evaluation therefore contributes to the gender pay gap. Using the newly developed Comparable Worth Index, the statistical results demonstrate the relevance of such evaluative discrimination and show that the lower valuation and pay of female versus male work contributes centrally to the gender pay gap, even after controlling for other earnings-relevant factors.