Gender differences in current and past job tasks may be crucial for understanding the gender wage gap. We use novel task data to address well-known measurement concerns, including that standard task measures assume away within-occupation gender differences in tasks. We find that unique measures of task-specific experience, in particular high-skilled information experience, are of particular importance for understanding the substantial widening of the wage gap early in the career. Highlighting the importance of these measures, traditional work-related proxies for gender differences in human capital accumulation are not informative because general work experience is similar by gender for our recent graduates.
JEL Codes
J16: Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
J31: Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
J62: Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
J24: Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity