Gender Disparities In Employment And Aggregate Profitability In The United States

The authors explore the relationships between aggregate profitability and women's growing share of market work in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s. Using decomposition analysis and counterfactuals, they investigate whether the contribution of the declining wage share to the upswing in profitability was aided by the growing incorporation of women into the workforce. Results show that women helped to moderate the decline in the aggregate wage share. The counterfactuals suggest that the reduction in gender pay disparity overwhelmed the negative effect of women's growing share of market work on the wage share.