Sex and Salaries at a Canadian University: The Song Remains the Same or the Times They Are a Changin'?

Abstract

We examine whether a sex-based salary gap identified at the University of Manitoba in 1993 and 2003 persists in 2013. We apply decomposition techniques to analyze the factors contributing to the salary gap in each year and to its changes across the two decades. We find that a smaller but substantial 12 percent gap persists in 2013. In contrast to previous years, the 2013 gap is completely explained by sex differences in faculty, experience, and, more important, type of appointment and rank. The distribution of values of these control variables changed considerably between the earlier years and 2013 in ways that influenced the gap.