The Long Shadow of Intersectionality: How Gender and Migrant Status Jointly Shape Pay Gaps over Time
About this Session
Time
Thu. 16.04. 15:55
Room
Lobby
Speaker
by Sophie Moser
Decades of research have documented that women earn less than men, yet we lack granular understanding of who is most disadvantaged and why. As global migration reshapes workforces, identifying how gender pay disadvantages differ between migrants and non-migrants, and how they unfold over the course of careers, is essential for designing effective policies to reduce pay inequality. Therefore, this study examines how gender and migrant status combine to shape both pay levels and pay trajectories in Germany. We develop a framework that distinguishes segregation mechanisms (allocation into gender- and migrant-typed jobs) from discrimination mechanisms (stereotyping and status beliefs) and, through a life-course lens theorizes whose wages grow to what extent. We test the framework with 277,587 person-year observations from the German Socio-Economic Panel, covering the hourly wages of 52,183 individuals from 1990 to 2023. The empirical strategy combines cross-sectional decompositions (separating segregation from within-job inequality) with longitudinal wage growth models. Results reveal that the gender pay gap is intersectional and dynamic. Migrant women consistently face the largest earnings disadvantage: on the aggregate, they earn 43% less than native men, and within the same jobs, a gap of 16% remains. The gap varies by generation, vanishing for the second generation of migrants, and by origin: both female and male migrants from the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Sub-Saharan Africa, face very large pay disadvantages, emphasizing that migrant status is the decisive separator for individuals from these regions. Yet, among Asian and Western migrants, the gap is substantial for women but not for men, making gender the key separator in these groups. Finally, wage trajectories diverge over time: migrant men show modest catch-up with natives over the course of their careers, while migrant women’s earnings remain flat over time, producing an ever-widening pay gap for migrant women. Together, analyses reveal that only an intersectional lens that accounts for heterogeneity and temporal changes reveals which segments of the workforce are most disadvantaged and why. Theoretically, the findings position time at the center of intersectionality, urging a shift in inequality research to intersectional perspectives that move from cross-sectional snapshots to life-course analyses. Practically, the study suggests equal-pay enforcement should be paired with policies that improve recognition, advancement, matching, and retention of migrant women in host-country labor markets. Together, these measures could bend trajectories upward for newly arrived migrant women and prevent cumulative disadvantage from hardening into a long shadow of intersectionality.
Decades of research have documented that women earn less than men, yet we lack granular understanding of who is most disadvantaged and why. As global migration reshapes workforces, identifying how gender pay disadvantages differ between migrants and non-migrants, and how they unfold over the course of careers, is essential for designing effective policies to reduce pay inequality. Therefore, this study examines how gender and migrant status combine to shape both pay levels and pay trajectories in Germany. We develop a framework that distinguishes segregation mechanisms (allocation into gender- and migrant-typed jobs) from discrimination mechanisms (stereotyping and status beliefs) and, through a life-course lens theorizes whose wages grow to what extent. We test the framework with 277,587 person-year observations from the German Socio-Economic Panel, covering the hourly wages of 52,183 individuals from 1990 to 2023. The empirical strategy combines cross-sectional decompositions (separating segregation from within-job inequality) with longitudinal wage growth models. Results reveal that the gender pay gap is intersectional and dynamic. Migrant women consistently face the largest earnings disadvantage: on the aggregate, they earn 43% less than native men, and within the same jobs, a gap of 16% remains. The gap varies by generation, vanishing for the second generation of migrants, and by origin: both female and male migrants from the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Sub-Saharan Africa, face very large pay disadvantages, emphasizing that migrant status is the decisive separator for individuals from these regions. Yet, among Asian and Western migrants, the gap is substantial for women but not for men, making gender the key separator in these groups. Finally, wage trajectories diverge over time: migrant men show modest catch-up with natives over the course of their careers, while migrant women’s earnings remain flat over time, producing an ever-widening pay gap for migrant women. Together, analyses reveal that only an intersectional lens that accounts for heterogeneity and temporal changes reveals which segments of the workforce are most disadvantaged and why. Theoretically, the findings position time at the center of intersectionality, urging a shift in inequality research to intersectional perspectives that move from cross-sectional snapshots to life-course analyses. Practically, the study suggests equal-pay enforcement should be paired with policies that improve recognition, advancement, matching, and retention of migrant women in host-country labor markets. Together, these measures could bend trajectories upward for newly arrived migrant women and prevent cumulative disadvantage from hardening into a long shadow of intersectionality.