Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies

We add to the gender wage gap literature by considering how characteristics of past employers are correlated with current wages and whether differences between the work histories of men and women are related to the persistent gender wage gap. Our hypothesis is that women have less exposure to higher paying industries and firms and more exposure to lower paying ones over the course of their careers and this history is correlated with male-female earnings differences in middle age. We use unique administrative employer history data to conduct a decomposition exercise to determine the impact of past employer characteristics relative to current employer characteristics, both at the mean and across the wage distribution. Consistent with past literature, we find that women in their forties work for lower paying firms than men, even within the same industry, and this difference accounts for almost a quarter of the wage gap observed at this point in time. In addition, we find that length and magnitude of past exposure to high and low paying industries and firms continues to exert influence on the wages observed in middle age. If women spent similar amounts of career time as men at employers with pay premiums similar to those of the employers of men, the gender wage gap would be 5% - 8% lower. The largest effects are found at the median, where differences in pay levels between men and women’s past employers explain approximately 8% of the gender wage gap. At the 90th percentile, differences in field of college degree are a more important predictor of the wage gap than work history.

Abstract While studies have demonstrated that men are important to maternal and child health, expectant fathers lack specific roles in pregnancy and childbirth. In this article, the author examines pathways to improve paternal involvement in childbirth and family health. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons

A complex set of historical and contemporary factors (such as racism, poverty and segregation) shape the life experiences, and health outcomes of African-American women. Their place in society and literally the places where they live both determine their health. This article considers whether the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PL. 111–148), as amended, signed into law by President Obama on March 30, 2010, can become a viable tool to help address the health needs of African-American women.

Efforts to reduce infant mortality in the United States have failed to incorporate paternal involvement. Research suggests that paternal involvement, which has been recognized as contributing to child development and health for many decades, is likely to affect infant mortality through the mother's well-being, primarily her access to resources and support. In spite of that, systemic barriers facing the father and the influence on his involvement in the pregnancy have received little attention. The Commission on Paternal Involvement in Pregnancy Outcomes (CPIPO) has identified the most important social barriers to paternal involvement during pregnancy and outlined a set of key policy priorities aimed at fostering paternal involvement. This article summarizes the key recommendations, including equitable paternity leave, elimination of marriage as a tax and public assistance penalty, integration of fatherhood initiatives in MCH programs, support of low-income fathers through employment training, father inclusion in family planning services, and expansion of birth data collection to include father information.

Black America in 1970 was weary and frustrated. Old targets of its assaults on racial injustice were becoming more elusive and were changing their shapes through disguises. Demonstrations for pure civil rights causes resulted in fewer concessions. Charismatic black leaders, once able to stir the national conscience almost at will, had gone to the mountaintop. Riots had proved ruinous. Rhetoric was boring. The voices of old allies were raised in eulogy of “the movement.”Cynicism enveloped black America like a fog, so sure were blacks that they had been placed near the bottom of the list of national priorities. For blacks knew that their aspirations remained unfulfilled, and they knew that minority participation in the affairs of the nation was still circumscribed by a variety of hostile forces. Not the least of the latter was the notion in white America that judicial pronouncements and legislation of the sixties had lifted the black man's burden; that it was time to back away from black programs and turn with some urgency to “business as usual.”