Gender Segregation and Wage Difference in the Hospitality Industry

Abstract

This article estimates the contribution of different types of gender segregation to the wage difference between men and women in the hospitality industry. Matched employer–employee data from a sample of hotels and restaurants in Andalusia are used to this end. The data source includes information on 181 hotels and 121 restaurants. Impacts on the wage gap are obtained for two empirical specifications. In the first, equal returns of observable variables are assumed for men and women and, in the second, returns are assumed to be different for each gender. The authors find that industrial and vertical segregation – and to a lesser extent establishment segregation – increase the wage differential. However, horizontal and category segregation help to diminish this, although the impact of the latter is not very substantial. Regarding occupational segregation, women predominate in worst-paid jobs, but their wages drop less than men's earnings. These estimations are robust to both empirical specifications.