Digitalization: Curse or blessing for the gender pay gap?
Local cooperation partner: Ao. Univ.-Prof.in Dr.in Margareta Kreimer, Institute of Economics
Junior Fellow: tba
Incoming Senior Fellow: Mag.a Dr.in Katharina Mader, Institute for Heterodox Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business
Incoming Junior Fellows: Stella Zilian, B.A. (Econ.) M.A. (Econ.) (WU)
Period: October 2020 to September 2021
Symposium: June 2021
Content:
Does digitalization bring gender equality? Developments in women's wages and gender pay gap in Austria
The structural downward pressure on wages in typical women's sectors with little or no substitutability potential will be investigated, traced historically and estimated for the future. The most important research questions are:
- Which indirect effects of digitalization on wages are evident in industries that cannot be (so strongly) automated?
- How have typical women's wages changed and how will they develop?
- What explanations can be found for the downward pressure on these wages?
In addition, it will be asked how much danger or potential digitalization holds for women and their wages and which instructions for action for politics, social partners and trade unions can be derived from it.
Data from the OECD's PIAAC will be combined with the studies on automation probabilities (Frey and Osbourne 2013, 2017; based on Autor et al 2003;
similar to Nagl et al. 2017) in order to develop the substitutability of occupations for Austria. For the typical female occupations that are expected to be less affected by digitalization, the development of women's wages is examined with the EU-SILC (Community Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) data. In a further step, future employment and wage developments are estimated. For this purpose, different scenarios are modelled to outline possible wage and employment development paths in the typical women's sectors.
The project is based on a project financed by the Digitization Fund Work 4.0 of AK Wien.