Journal articles on the topic 'Wages Wage differential Education China'

This paper estimates the gender wage gap and its composition in China’s urban labor market. The traditional Blinder–Oaxaca (1973) decomposition method with different weighing systems is employed. To correct for potential selection bias caused by women’s labor force participation, we employ the Heckman’s two-step procedure to estimate the female wage function. A large proportion of the gender wage gap is unexplained by differences of productive characteristics of individuals. Even though women have higher level of education attainments on average, they receive lower wages than men. Both facts suggest a potential discrimination against women in China.

Using a model of statistical discrimination and educational sorting, we explain why blacks get more education than whites of similar cognitive ability, and we explore how the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT), wages, and education are related. The model suggests that one should control for both AFQT and education when comparing the earnings of blacks and whites, in which case a substantial black-white wage differential emerges. We reject the hypothesis that differences in school quality between blacks and whites explain the wage and education differentials. Our findings support the view that some of the black-white wage differential reflects the operation of the labor market. (JEL I21, J15, J24, J31, J71)

Wage differential due to employer size is one of the key areas of interest in labour market research because a strong positive relationship between employer size and wages has been observed in developed and developing countries. It is, however, relatively neglected area of research in Pakistan. The purpose of present study is to investigate the employer size wage differential by looking at human capital factors. The study is based on standard methodology and estimates earning functions on Labour Force Survey (LFS) data for year 2007-08. Results clearly show that human capital investment has a bigger role in determining wages in the larger firms as compared to smaller firms. The main policy implications emanating from the analysis are the higher investment in skill which increases opportunities for workers in the labour market for higher wages and for jobs with good characteristics especially in large sized firms. The government policy towards education and skill formation needs serious reforms and better allocation of funds so that people get chance to enhance their skill level hence wages. JEL classification: J31, J40, J24 Keywords: Wage Differential, Human Capital, Labour Market

Global obesity as a major public health problem has increased at pandemic rate, with men often outpacing women. Survey data show that the overall prevalence of obesity is higher among women than men, yet in high-income developed countries, the prevalence of overweight is higher among men than women. The differential impact of different economic stages has prompted research in transition economies such as China. Using an instrumental variable approach based on a sample of 13,574 individuals from nine provinces in the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP), we find a 7% excess-weight premium in wages for overweight men and a 4.6% penalty for overweight women, compared to their healthy-weight peers. We also find an inverse u-shaped association between the body mass index (BMI) and logarithm of monthly income for men, with an implied optimum above the threshold of obesity, while women are better off the slimmer they are. The excess-weight premium in wages for Chinese urban men might be associated with entrenched business practices of excessive dining and drinking associated with senior positions. Policies aimed at reducing obesity in China must be adapted to its unique sociocultural context in order to have gender-differentiated effects.

Are Indonesian government officials overpaid? If they are, should Indonesia’s decision makers reduce the civil servants’ wage rate? Practically, the best comparison for the public sector’s wage is the private sector’s remuneration. Therefore, this study investigates the wage differential between public and private sectors in Indonesia. To obtain robust estimations, it needs to eliminate the effects from differences in workers’ and jobs’ characteristic as well as the selection bias problem. Therefore, it applies various methodologies such as Heckman Correction Method and Quantile Wage Regression by using the newest data retrieved from Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) 5 in 2014. The results suggest that differences in wages among two sectors are positive, meaning that Indonesia’s government workers earned higher wages with respect to their private counterparts. Some of those results were consistent with former studies in other countries but revealed different trends compared to previous Indonesian data. The wage gap found in this study was higher for individuals with tertiary education level and varied along the wage distribution.

Few countries have higher wage inequality than South Africa, where wages of African and white workers differ by a factor of five. Using survey data collected in 1993, the authors analyze the complex effect of unions on this wage gap. Among male African workers in the bottom decile of the wage distribution, union membership was associated with wages that were 145% higher than those of comparable nonunion workers, and among those in the top decile the differential was 19%. Regression estimates also indicate that returns to observed productive characteristics of workers, such as education and experience, were larger for nonunion than union workers. If the large union relative wage effect were cut in half, the authors estimate that employment of African youth, age 16–29, would increase by two percentage points, and their labor force participation rate would also increase substantially.

AbstractOne of the defining features of China’s economy over the two decades between 1995 and 2015 was the persistent rise of wages for workers and professionals in nearly every segment of the economy—with wage rates for labor-intensive jobs in manufacturing, construction, and the informal service sector rising the fastest. Recently, however, the economic environment in China has begun to change, including changes in both employment and wages. We identify recent employment/wage trends throughout China’s economy and postulate the sources of these trends as well as possible future consequences if they continue. We use official, nationally aggregated data to examine employment and wages in multiple sectors and industries. Our findings indicate that China may have entered a new phase of economic development in the mid-2010s. According to the data, in recent years, wage growth has begun to polarize: Rising for professionals employed in formal skill-intensive industries; and falling for workers in the informal labor-intensive service sector. We attribute this increase in skill-intensive wages to an increase in demand for skill-intensive employment, due to the emergence of a large middle class in China, for whom the demand for high technology, finance, banking, health, and higher education industries is increasing while, at least in the recent short term, the supply of experienced, high-skilled professionals has not kept up. The employment/wage trend in the informal (low-wage) service sector, however, is following a different pattern. While there is a rising demand for services in China’s economy, the growth, due to a number of factors (e.g., large shares of GDP targeted by policymakers to investment; high rates of savings by consumers), is relatively slow. In contrast, due to a number of economic forces, including globalization and automation, the supply of labor into the service sector of the informal economy is being fueled by the flow of labor out of manufacturing and construction (two industries that that have experienced employment declines since 2013). These supply and demand trends, in turn, are leading to the fall in the growth rate of wages in the informal service sector. We conclude by discussing the possible longer-term consequences of these emerging polarization trends based on an examination of recent experience with wage polarization occurring in both middle- and high-income countries, as well as its consequences. We also present policy recommendations for greater investment in education and human capital, as well as for the development of a more comprehensive set of social safety nets for different segments of China’s population.

<p>This paper analyses the evolution of the wage return to tertiary education in Spain,<br />distinguishing between advanced vocational training and university education. Using<br />microdata from the Spanish Structure of Earnings Survey, the study estimates wage equations<br />which, in addition to considering the human capital and the personal and employment<br />characteristics of individuals as causal factors, includes a measure of the excess labour supply<br />of university graduates by region. The results show that the wage differential of the graduate<br />population fell, in general, in the period 1995-2006, and that a relatively high supply of<br />graduates in the regional labour market negatively affects wages in such regions, and that<br />these effects increase over time.</p>

This article investigates college graduates in Beijing, China, and asks, First: Whether college graduates without local hukou are prone to educational mismatch? Second: What role does the hukou system play in the educational mismatch? And third: Whether college graduates without local hukou are willing to lower their wages in order to get a hukou? I use the Beijing College Students Panel Survey (BCSPS), and multinomial logit models and the linear regression analyses are conducted. I find that college graduates with (without) local hukou through job are more likely to be vertical and full mismatch than locals, and those who obtain a hukou through job have a higher full mismatch. After considering the educational mismatch, there is no significant difference in monthly wages between college graduates (not) having a hukou by work and locals.

This paper quantifies the extent to which unified teacher pay scales and differential alternatives produce opportunity costs that are asymmetric in math and verbal skills. Data from the Baccalaureate and Beyond 1997 and 2003 follow-ups are used to estimate a fully parametric, selection-corrected wage equation for nonteachers, which is then used to predict the wages that teachers would have received in a nonteaching career. The difference between actual teacher salaries and this prediction can be considered the opportunity cost of teaching. Moving up one standard deviation in math SAT score increases the opportunity cost of teaching by $1,500 to $2,000 four years after college, rising to $3,000 to $3,800 ten years after college. Moving up one standard deviation in verbal SAT score increases the opportunity cost by $300 four years after college, and by $1,300 ten years after college. The teacher salary gap is also decomposed into policy versus teacher-characteristic components.

Since the initiation of the economic reforms in 1978, generations of Chinese migrants have moved from the countryside to cities to seek job opportunities. As a result of financial constraints and institutional obstacles, many migrants leave their children at the place of origin, to be taken care of by partners, grandparents or other caregivers. Whilst previous studies primarily focus on the impacts of parental migration on children’s education and health, very few studies have examined its longer-term impacts on labour market income when children reach adulthood. Yet parental migration is likely to influence children’s human capital accumulation and skill development. Drawing on data from the 2011 Chinese Migrant Dynamics Monitoring Survey, this article fills the gap by exploring the relationship between different types of parental migration and their children’s wages when the children have grown up and migrated to work in cities. Structural models are employed to estimate both education and wage equations simultaneously to capture the direct effect of parental migration on wages, together with the mediating effect of education. The results show significantly negative relationships between parental migration and young migrants’ educational attainment and wages. Those who experienced the out-migration of both parents are most disadvantaged in the urban labour market. The study is important for policies aimed at improving migrants’ life prospects and enhancing social mobility and equality.

I document that less educated workers experience higher and more cyclically sensitive job separation rates. Meanwhile, workers with a bachelor's degree or more exhibit pro-cyclical wages while workers without a high school degree exhibit no statistically discernible cyclical pattern. Differences in the sensitivity are most stark when measurement of labor costs accounts for the value of the persistent effects of current macroeconomic conditions on future remitted wages. These findings suggest optimally differential implementation of self-enforcing implicit wage contracts in which educated workers and their employers leverage relative employment stability to smooth the effects of cyclical fluctuations over longer horizons. This margin of adjustment is less available to the less well educated, who have shorter expected employment durations. Furthermore, failure to account for the heterogeneities documented here leads to substantial underestimation of the welfare costs of business cycles.

This paper investigates the importance of returns on human capital and educational mismatch in determining wages in the Spanish hospitality sector and the travel agency sector using an expanded version of the Mincer wage equation (1974). In addition, we analyze the impact of several job characteristics and personal characteristics on wages. Using data from the 2006 Spanish Wage Structure Survey, we estimate separate regressions for each education group under analysis: overeducated, undereducated and adequately educated workers, following the method used by Kiker et al. (1997) and using a procedure similar to that used by Strauss and Maisonneuve (2007). The regressions show specific estimated parameters of the variables included in all wage equations implemented for each analyzed group. Thus, educational mismatch is determinant for the returns on human capital in both sectors and it also has a significant and differential impact on wage formation in each educational group. Moreover, this fact has also been shown in the other variables of the model that represent both the personal characteristics of workers and job-specific characteristics. Therefore, according to the methodology used in our study, the real hourly wage may be quantitatively influenced by the variables in a model depending on whether the educational level of the workers matches the educational requirements of the job performed. Finally, it is important to note that evidence has been found regarding the impact of firm size on wage returns and the data also has provided evidence of wage differentials by gender in the Spanish hospitality industry.

This paper examines the magnitude of public/private wage differentials in Pakistan using data drawn from the 2001-02 Pakistan Labour Force Survey. As in many other countries, public sector workers in Pakistan tend both to have higher average pay and education levels as compared to their private sector counterparts. In addition, the public sector in Pakistan has both a more compressed wage distribution and a smaller gender pay gap than that prevailing in the private sector. Our empirical analysis suggests that about two-fifths of the raw differential in average hourly wages between the two sectors is accounted for by differentials in average characteristics. The estimated public sector mark-up, ceteris paribus, is of the order of 49 percent and is substantial by the standards of developed economies. The quantile regression estimates suggest that the mark-up was found to decline monotonically with movement up the conditional wage distribution. In particular, the premium at the 10th percentile was estimated at 92 percent as compared to a more modest 20 percent at the 90th percentile.

Rural migrant workers and urban local low skilled labors are in the urban labor market at the same time. Though with different identities, both bear the characteristics of low degree of education. In order to explore whether there is difference in wages and employment between the two, we made a study based on 519 survey questionnaires in Shenyang City in China. We use the Multinomial logit model to estimate the possible obtained industry, and to examine factors that influence the labor obtained industry, by actual and estimated industry distribution of rural migrant workers and urban local low skill labor, we suggest that employment structure of the two have great disparity for different industries .So the government should deregulate rural rural migrant workers policy, and improve the level of human capital of migrant workers to eliminate the differences.

Ever since the pioneering work on human capital modeling by Becker (1964) and Mincer (1974), estimation of earning potential and wage differentials in terms of differences in human capital endowments has been a favourite topic of research throughout the world. The empirical evidence has established, may be beyond doubt, that low returns are usually associated with low-level of human capital possessed by economic agents. Using appropriate controls for innate abilities, education, experience and training as primary determinants of human capital, the residual differential in wages among differentiated groups (on the basis of gender, race, and region) has often been characterised as discrimination [Blinder (1973) and Oaxaca (1973)]. The empirical estimation made further advances when the issue of sample selection bias was also settled by Heckman (1980). More recently the focus of research has shifted from differentials measured at the conditional mean (average) value to measurement at different points of wage distribution to test the ‘glass ceiling and sticky floor’ hypothesis.1 Some of the studies where quantile regression approach of Koenker and Bassett (1978) and Buchinsky (1998) has been adopted include Bjorklund and Vroman (2001), Dolado and Llorens (2004), and Albrecht, Vuuren, and Vroman (2004). On the basis of this research, the glass ceiling hypothesis has received fair amount of empirical support in much of the developed world. On the other hand, the sticky floor hypothesis has only been observed in some of the countries located in the southern Europe. The focus of present study is on Pakistan with three main objectives. First, to investigate if analysis at the conditional mean is sufficient to explain wage differential or an extensive work covering different points of wage distribution is required to have proper insight to the issue. This would, in turn, enable us to determine which of the two hypotheses, i.e., the glass ceiling or the sticky floor, is prevalent in the country? For this purpose, gender wage differentials at different quantiles, i.e., 10th, 25th, median,

Residential choice is one of the basic contents of urban adaptation of the floating population and an important aspect in determining the quality of life in the city. This study is for Muslim migrants with three attributes (minority, floating population and religious belief). The purpose is to reveal the commonalities and differences in the choice of living spaces of Muslim Migrants in multi-ethnic cities Lanzhou and Xi’an, to provide guidance for the targeted management of Muslim migrants and promote their urban integration. Based on available research data from 2017-2019, the study adopts spatial analysis and regression analysis to explore the results of the selection of Muslim migrants living space in two cities and its influencing factors. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) The commonality of Muslim migrants living space in the two cities lies in: the distribution pattern of “Living around the mosque and running business nearby the mosque” still exists. The living space of Muslim migrants consists of points (mosques), lines (streets or traffic lines), and faces (inhabited areas), forming a spatial distribution pattern of the “mosque + community” residential circle. Differences: Muslim migrants in Hui’s street, Xi’an, taking the “Mosque-alley system” as an independent social organization, and their living space presents a " mosque-alley Interlaced" distribution. Muslim migrants living in the urban village community on the periphery of Hui’s street take "mosque" and "farm market" as the dual core, showing the “core (mosque/market) + community” inlaid living space situation. The Muslim migrants in Lanzhou generally live around the mosque or close to the streets and roads that lead to mosque. 2). In terms of commonality, the living choices of Muslim migrants in both cities consider the distance from the place of work, the mosque or the Muslim community to the place of residence. In terms of differences, the residential choice of Muslim migrants in Xi’an is mainly influenced by the composition of the living, the income of wages, and the nature of the occupation. The choice is mainly influenced by the rent level, occupational nature and wage income of the house; and the main influencing factors of the choice of Muslim migrants in Lanzhou are the education level and the rent level of the house. The main influencing factors of residential location selection are education level and mobility purpose. The level of education, traditional living customs, and rent levels have become the core factors determining the urban accommodation adaptation of Muslim migrants.

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to analyse how the male-female pay gap in China varies across the pay distribution and to provide evidence on the factors that influence that gap. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use the Recentered Influence Function modification of quantile regressions to estimate how the male-female pay gap varies across the pay distribution. The authors also decompose the pay gaps at different quantiles of the pay distribution into differences in endowments of wage determining characteristics and differences in the returns for the same characteristics. The analysis is based on data from the Life Histories and Social Change in Contemporary China survey. Findings – The authors find evidence of a sticky floor (large pay gaps at the bottom of the pay distribution) and some limited and weaker evidence of a glass ceiling (large pay gaps at the top of the distribution). This pattern prevails based on the overall pay gap as well as on the adjusted or net gap that reflects differences in the pay that males and females receive when they have the same pay determining characteristics. The pattern largely reflects the coefficients or unexplained differences across the pay distribution. Factors influencing the pay gap and how they vary across the pay distribution are discussed. The variation highlights considerable heterogeneity in the Chinese labour market with respect to how pay is determined and different characteristics are rewarded, implying that the conventional Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions that focus only on the mean of the distribution can mask important differences across the full pay distribution. Social implications – At the bottom of the pay distribution most of the lower pay of females reflects their lower returns to job tenure, experience and a greater negative effect of family responsibilities on females’ wages, and to a lesser extent their lower level of education, less likelihood of being CPP members and their concentration in lower paying occupations. At the top of the pay distribution most of their lower pay reflects their lower returns on education, job tenure and work experience, and to a lesser extent their lower levels of experience and lower likelihood of being in managerial and leadership positions. Originality/value – The paper systematically examines the male-female pay gap and its determinants throughout the pay distribution in China, highlighting that the conventional Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions that focus only on the mean of the distribution can mask important differences across the full pay distribution and not capture the considerable heterogeneity in that labour market.

Teacher attrition is a chronic challenge facing many education systems, and has been shown to negatively impact education quality and equity. Common explanations rooted in occupational choice theory identify pecuniary and non-pecuniary rewards as critical factors in motivating and retaining teachers. Using China Household Income Project (CHIP) urban dataset, which contains detailed information on teacher career decisions, this study examines these theoretical stipulations by simultaneously modeling teacher career decisions, wage compensation, and on-the-job well-being. Probit panel regression results demonstrate that a 10% increase in teacher wage and well-being gaps, relative to comparable professionals, predicts a 7.9% and 32% lower probability of retention respectively, with effects mostly operating through teacher well-being.

AbstractThis study examines the effect of an income tax reform on wages. An Israeli reform implemented in 2003–2009 reduced individuals’ marginal income tax rate by 7–17 percentage points. We utilized the differential and non-monotonic marginal tax rate reduction, and used Israel Tax Authority panel data of wage earners, merged with Labor Force Surveys. We found that in the business sector, the elasticity of reported gross wages relative to the net-of-tax rate is about 0.1. The wage earners in the lowest wage quintile were not affected by the tax reform, those in the second and third quintiles did not respond to the tax cut, but elasticity increased with wage, reaching about 0.4 in the upper decile. We did not find statistically significant differences in elasticity by gender, ethnicity, or education.

Abstract This paper studies the impact of immigration on native labor market outcomes in South Korea. We exploit the variation in immigration flows in an education-experience cell and find that, on average, immigration has no harmful effect on the wages or employment of native workers. However, there is a great heterogeneity of wage effects across education groups: high school dropouts suffer from the adverse effects, whereas the effects for college graduates are positive. We find the potential explanation for these differential effects in the suggestive evidence on the degree of substitution. Specifically, we examine the similarity of occupational distribution between natives and immigrants and assimilation patterns for immigrants.

Gender discrimination has been persistent across globe and it is more identified in terms of wage differential. Such discrimination is more striking in developing countries and further more among social groups. Though many countries have passed minimum wage laws and laws mandating equal treatment of women at workplace, gender wage differential remains a perennial feature of labor markets across globe. Among BRIC nation India depicts highest wage discrimination between sexes (Rema Nagarajan TNN March 2011). This fact was reveled also in the Global Gender Gap Report of 2010 as well. The recent survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF) points out the Indian situation, ranking India among the bottom 10 countries in the world in terms of women’s participation in the economy. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020 says Of the 153 countries studied in the report, India ranks 112th on the overall Global Gender Gap Index with the index value of (0.068). The overall gender gap as though has narrowed the pay gaps have widen and it will take 257 more years i.e by year 2257 pay equity will be established. India has shown disappointing performance in women work participation rate (WPR), pushing the country among the bottom 10 countries on the WEF list. The country ranks 149th among 153 countries in economic participation. Overall, in terms of gender equality India achieves a score of 59.4%, but in terms of economic participation and opportunity, it scores 39.8% which is dismal. The present study is an attempt to analyze the wage differential across selected states of India. The wages for agriculture and non agriculture workers for sexes is considered. The attempt has been made to evaluate wage differential across selected states of India and inequality therein has been calculated. The descriptive statistical tools like arithmetic mean and standard deviation has been used to ameliorate understanding. The pay parity Index has also been calculated The overall observation from the study widens understanding about pay pattern in India – and discriminating dimension therein. Across occupation unequal pay prevails in regards to sexes with males being paid more than women for the equal jobs. Disparity among agricultural Towards Excellence: An Indexed, Refereed & Peer Reviewed Journal of Higher Education / Dr. Hitesh Jagani & Dr. Nasheman Bandookwala / Page 399-410 March, 2021. VOL.13. ISSUE NO. 1 https://hrdc.gujaratuniversity.ac.in/Publication Page | 400 workers is highest at Kerala- female agricultural workers are paid 29% less than males. On other hand in Himachal Pradesh male agricultural worker is paid 5% less than females. For non agricultural workers Tamil Nadu exhibits high incidence of inequality with female workers being paid 32% less than males. Gujarat comparatively depicts a better scenario with average female payments being more in non agricultural sector as though in agriculture sector disparity prevails.

The capitalist world-economy takes the form of an iceberg. The most studied part which appears above the surface is supported by a huge underlying structure that is out of sight. Unlike the iceberg, the world-economy is a dynamic system based on flows of value from the underside toward the top. These include drains of surplus (expropriated value) that take two forms: visible monetarized flows of bright value and hidden un(der)costed flows that carry dark value (the unrecorded value of cheap labor, labor reproduction and ecological externalities). Commodity chains are central mechanisms for these surplus drains in the world-economy. At each node of the chain, participants attempt to maximize their capture of bright value through wages, rent and profit. They do this by constructing differential degrees of monopoly (control of the markup between cost and sale price) and degrees of monopsony (control of markdowns of production costs). However, this process depends upon the transformation of dark value into bright value for capture. Via an examination of the Apple iPad commodity chain, I show how the bright value captured by Apple depends on the dark value extracted by its suppliers. Dark value is estimated by measurements of the value of under-payments for wage labor, reproductive labor and environmental damage in Asian countries, especially China. Surprisingly, most dark value embedded in the iPad is captured by final buyers (mostly in the core) as consumer surplus.

Women in Universities Women have been fighting for the right to participate in universities since 1873, when Sophia Jex Blake went to court with her fight to enrol at Edinburgh University. In rejecting her application, one of the judges stated: It is a belief, widely entertained, that there is a great difference in the mental constitution of the two sexes, just as there is in their physical conformation. The powers and susceptibilities of women are as noble as those of men; but they are thought to be different, and, in particular, it is considered that they have not the same power of intense labour as men .... (Scutt 224) In Australia, from the 1850s to the 1880s, both the University of Sydney and The University of Melbourne refused to admit women as students. In 1879, the Chancellor of the University of Sydney suggested that: The best course to be taken by advocates of advanced education for women, would be to found some sort of affiliated college for them in the vicinity of the University ... if there really be a widespread wish on the part of young women for a higher education ..." (Scutt 228). Having finally won the right to study at university in 1881, and to enter the academic workforce, women are still finding many of the old prejudices remain. Numerous studies have demonstrated that women's experiences in academe are qualitatively different from men's and that women are systematically paid lower salaries than men of equivalent academic achievement, age and length of service (Bagilhole 431-47; Loder 713-4; McElrath 269-81;). Studies have shown that differences in the experiences of male and female faculty are largely explained by gender (Booth & Burton 312-33; Everett 159-75; Over & Lancaster 309-18; Ready 7) and sex discrimination is highlighted as an ongoing contributor to the inequity (Allport 5-8; Hall & Swadener 1; Tuohy 8). A recent UNESCO-Commonwealth (http://www.unesco.org/) report states that: ... in spite of advances which women have made in many areas of public life in the past two decades, in the area of higher education management they are still a long way from participating on the same footing as men. With hardly an exception, the global picture is one of men outnumbering women at about five to one at middle management level and at about twenty to one at senior management level (Singh 4). The introduction in Australia of Sex Discrimination legislation (http://www.hreoc.gov.au/sex_discrimination/) in 1984 and more recently, Affirmative Action policies ( http://www.austlii.edu.au/) in employment and promotion rounds in some universities has not improved women's situation to the extent expected. In 1978, women held 16% of full time academic posts while gaining 25% of all higher degrees and 30% of undergraduate degrees (Commonwealth Government statistics cited by Over and McKenzie 61-71). In 1999, 54% of students were women yet women's participation in academe had only increased to 35% (DETYA) (http://www.deet.gov.au/). Women are mainly employed at the lowest academic levels. In 1999, 72% of women were employed at Levels A and B (Associate Lecturer/Lecturer) compared to 46% of men, with only 8% of women reaching Levels D and E (Associate Professor/Professor) compared to 26% of men. Women continue to be clustered in the traditionally female areas of Health, Education and Arts while few seem to have successfully broken through the barriers in the traditionally male areas of Engineering, Architecture or Agriculture (DETYA) (http://www.deet.gov.au/). Business has traditionally been viewed as a male preserve but enrolments have increased to the point where women almost equal men. However, the staff ratio of men to women remains very low at 70/30 (DETYA) (http://www.deet.gov.au/). The slow growth rate for women in academe belies the fact that more women than men are now completing university degrees. The purpose of this study was to determine how well the experiences of academic women in the male-dominated faculties of business and commerce, reflect the literature on women in universities, in general. Previous empirical studies have found inequitable treatment of women without necessarily exploring the processes of discrimination. The Study This study involved interviews with academic women who had been employed in faculties of business and commerce for at least five years. The research used the 'snowballing' technique: participants initially comprised women known to me but as these women told female colleagues of my study I was given the names of other women who were willing to participate. Participants comprised twenty-one women from three universities in Western Australia, two universities in New South Wales and one Victorian university. One woman had recently left academe and started her own business because of discriminatory practices she had encountered and another was contemplating leaving. In each university, women comprised a minority of the faculty and felt disadvantaged in some way. A semi-structured interview was used to explore with the women the issues that had been identified from previous studies of sex discrimination in the academic profession. Open-ended questions were used and the interviews conducted face to face, or, in the case of those interstate, via telephone or email. The women spoke frankly about their experiences. Findings and Discussion Promotion Each of the women in this study said that their university had established an internal promotion policy based on merit. However, they felt the greatest problem they had encountered in gaining promotion was in determining the criteria upon which they would be judged each year, and in meeting those criteria. "I have been chasing promotion for over five years. At first I was told that I would not be promoted until I got my masters degree so I worked really hard to complete it but then a male colleague was promoted without a masters. Once I got the masters I was told I needed to publish to be promoted but in the next year someone else was promoted without any publications. You go all out to meet the criteria each year but in the next year the promotions committee changes and so do the criteria for that year"(Lecturer applying for Senior Lecturer position). The promotion procedure at one university was explained by a Senior Lecturer who had served on promotion committees on two occasions. "There are about ten criteria upon which promotion can be based. When the applications are received we all get together to determine which are the criteria to be applied. In the last promotion round only four of the ten criteria were used so only people satisfying those criteria were selected." When asked whether the criteria were the same as the previous year she replied: "Last year there was more emphasis on qualifications and publications. This year community involvement and involvement in university affairs were judged as more important ... it varies from year to year". On questioning about the promotion procedures at their universities, women stated they were largely dissatisfied with the process, that they were presumed to be satisfied with their lot while the men were actively encouraged to apply. "I was told not to bother to apply (for a senior lecturer position) as I would not get it ... that there was a queue of people to be promoted before me - (named males) - and until they were promoted, I would not be considered" (Lecturer). "The position was advertised with a specific male applicant in mind and specifically excluded me by stating that the appointee must have supervisory experience. Women in my department are not given the opportunity to supervise students so I didn't even bother applying."(Lecturer aspiring to a Senior Lecturer position). One woman, upon inquiring why she was not promoted, was told that she should be grateful to have tenure and asked why she wanted to be promoted, anyway. "They would never have said that to a male, they would have expected a male to be working towards promotion" (Associate Lecturer). All women interviewed stated that they had problems keeping up with the 'goal posts' which moved from year to year. The 'moving of the goal posts' is one means by which universities are able to maintain the position of women at lower levels. Unsurprisingly, some women said they felt that promotion at their university was based on politics rather than merit. However, defining merit in universities is problematic. According to Burton (430), definitions of what is meritorious depend upon the power of particular groups to define it and, as a result, can change. The narrow view of merit is 'the best person for the job' which Burton (113) describes as an "overwhelming tendency to select in your own image". Burton (430) and Allport (5) claim universities define merit along male cultural lines with current selection, remuneration and career progression practices strongly influenced by an underlying gender bias. Burton (430) argues that there is still a tendency for work to be ranked as 'men's' or women's work with lower status attributed to the latter and an assumption that different skills and abilities are needed for each. Over and McKenzie (61-71) claim that women are disadvantaged by the fact that invalid merit criteria are applied to them which men as a group are more likely to satisfy. They state that the academic careers of most women do not fit the stereotypic male experience and it is mainly men who decide whether women should be promoted. At one university in the study, the merit criteria for senior lecturer include the requirement that aspirants have a number of overseas conference presentations. "Some of us are single working mothers and overseas conference attendance is out of the question because who's going to mind our children while we are away? The senior males were astonished when I mentioned that this was a problem for me. It had never occurred to them" (Associate Lecturer on why women at her university do not apply for promotion). Family Responsibilities The women commented on the numerous difficulties they had encountered in combining an academic career with responsibility for children. They felt that certain male faculty members perceived married women with children as lacking in career commitment, whereas married men with families were viewed as being more stable and committed to their careers. One married woman claimed that when she needed to go home to tend a sick child, her male Head of Department told her she should "get her priorities right". In 1992, Family Responsibility provisions were added to the Sex Discrimination Act (http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/pasteact/0/171/top.htm). However, it would appear that individual practice doesn't always follow as a result of changes in policy. Equal Pay On the subject of equal pay for equal work, the women said that they were often paid lower wages than their male colleagues despite having higher qualifications and equivalent teaching and research experience. Some women felt that the barriers between academic levels were used to artificially maintain the wage gap between men and women, regardless of qualifications and ability. This was felt to be particularly the case between the levels of Associate Lecturer (Level A) and Lecturer (Level B). "They find excuses to keep you at Associate Lecturer so that they can pay you less to do the same work that you would be doing as a lecturer ... lecturing, coordinating units and so on"(Associate Lecturer). "There are no men below Lecturer in my Department, either lecturing or with Masters degrees. As soon as they get their Masters they are promoted to Lecturer.... I'm coordinating units as an Associate Lecturer while some male lecturers have less responsibility' (Associate Lecturer with Masters degree and publications) Two women said that they had been performing higher level duties (Level B) for up to five years while working on their Masters but their university refused to pay them at the higher level until they had completed their degree. Even when they satisfied all the requirements for the Masters degree and had a letter from their supervisor saying they had satisfied all the requirements, the university refused to pay them until they had actually graduated, which was some time later. Shortly afterwards their university took on two men to perform the same duties, paying these at the higher level even though they had not completed a masters degree. One former lecturer claimed that she was employed at a time when there was a large turnover of staff in her department. A number of new staff were appointed of whom she was the only female. Although she and the other new staff were all employed at Lecturer Level B, it wasn't until later on that she discovered that the men were appointed at the top of the Lecturer salary scale while she was appointed at the bottom, with a salary differential of about10 000pa. This was despite the fact that both she and the men had similar qualifications and work experience at commencement. Teaching Loads Another complaint by women concerned inequitable teaching loads. An analysis in one Business School showed that women had higher teaching loads while men were given more time off for research. The women complained that the supervision of post-graduate students was divided up between the men, and women were excluded. Since research publication and student supervision are usually the most highly ranked criteria in academic promotion rounds, women who are not given the opportunity to participate in these areas are disadvantaged when applying for promotion. This problem is compounded since women are overwhelmingly employed at the lower levels where responsibility for the majority of teaching takes place. This leaves them with little time left to devote to research even if given the opportunity. The women also said they were often pressured into taking on higher duties than those prescribed in the Position Classification Standards for their level. They tended to acquiesce because of their need to prove they were better than men to gain promotion. One woman said that the extra administrative duties she had been given meant that she had less time for research which actually reduced her prospects for tenure and promotion. She said she didn't dare complain as the men in her department would use it as an excuse to question her commitment to her job. Conclusion An examination of women's perceptions and experiences in the workplace can help us understand the informal processes that work against women. The experiences of the women discussed in this paper provide an insight into the subtle processes that continue to operate in some higher education institutions to prevent women from reaching their full potential. Although equal opportunity legislation (http://www.hreoc.gov.au/about_the_commission/legislation/index.html) has been enacted to prevent discrimination and disadvantage to women, the implementation of policy does not always filter through to the operational levels. It is still possible to circumvent legislation in subtle ways, perhaps without even being aware that these practices are discriminative. The women in this study spoke frankly about their experiences and the difficulties they had encountered in gaining equal recognition to men, with very few satisfied that they were receiving equitable treatment. The women felt that their work was not valued as highly as that of the men they worked with and they were given less opportunities for advancement. Overall, the interviews with the women revealed interesting insights into their experiences in pursuing academic careers and in trying to gain recognition for their achievements. The collective experiences of the women provide an insight into the subtle ways in which disadvantage can be engendered. The findings of this study have serious implications for university administrators, particularly deans and heads of schools. There are many well-qualified women academics and universities cannot afford to overlook the valuable contribution these women can make to teaching, research and university governance. References Allport, Caroline. "Improving Gender Equity: Using Industrial Bargaining". NTEU Frontline4.1 (1996): 5-8. Bacchi, Carol. "The Brick Wall: Why So Few Women Become Senior Academics". Australian Universities Review36.1 (1993): 36-41. Bagilhole, Barbara. "Survivors in a Male Preserve: A Study of British Women Academics' Experiences and Perceptions of Discrimination in a UK University". Higher Education26 (1993): 431-47. Booth, Alison, and Jonathon Burton. "The Position of Women in UK Academic Economics". The Economic Journal110.464 (2000): 312-33. Burton, Clare. "Merit and Gender: Organisations and the Mobilisation of Masculine Bias." Australian Journal of Social Issues22 (1987): 424-35. Burton, Clare. An Equity Review of Staffing Policies and Associated Decision-making at Edith Cowan University. Report commissioned by ECU. 1994. DETYA. Selected Higher Education Statistics. 1999. Everett, James. "Sex, Rank and Qualifications at Australian Universities". Australian Journal of Management19.2 (1994): 159-75. Hall, Elaine, and Beth Blue Swadener. "Chilly Climate: A Study of Subtle Sex Discrimination at a State University". Initiatives (Online)59.3 (2000): 1. Loder, Natasha. "US Science Shocked by Revelations of Sexual Discrimination". Nature405.6787 (2000): 713-4. McElrath, Karen. "Gender, Career Disruption and Academic Rewards". Journal of Higher Education63.3 (1992): 269-81. Over, Ray, and Sandra Lancaster. "The Early Career Patterns of Men and Women in Australian Universities". The Australian Journal of Education28.3 (1984): 309-18. Over, Ray, and Beryl Mckenzie. "Career Prospects for Women in Australian Universities". Journal of Tertiary Educational Administration7.1 (1985): 61-71. Ready, Tinker. "West Coast US Recognizes Academic Gender Bias". Nature Medicine 7.1 (2000): 1. Scutt, Jocelyn. The Sexual Gerrymander.The Law Printer, 1994. Singh, Jasbir. "Women and Management in Higher Education: A Commonwealth Project." A.C.U. Bulletin of Current Documentation. 133 (1998): 2-8. Tuohy, John. "Sex Discrimination Infects Med Schools: Women Say Bias Blocks Chances for Advancement". USA Today2000. 8. Links http://www.unesco.org/ http://www.deet.gov.au/ http://www.hreoc.gov.au/sex_discrimination/ http://www.hreoc.gov.au/about_the_commission/legislation/index.html http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgibin/disp.pl/au/legis/cth/consol%5fact/aaeofwa 1986634/?query=title+%28+%22affirmative+action%22+%29 http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/pasteact/0/171/top.htm Citation reference for this article MLA Style Ellis-Newman, Jennifer. "Women and Work" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 4.5 (2001). [your date of access] < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0111/Ellis-Newman.xml >. Chicago Style Ellis-Newman, Jennifer, "Women and Work" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 4, no. 5 (2001), < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0111/Ellis-Newman.xml > ([your date of access]). APA Style Ellis-Newman, Jennifer. (2001) Women and Work. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 4(5). < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0111/Ellis-Newman.xml > ([your date of access]).