Sex-Differences in Wages and Employment: A Test of the Specific Capital Hypothesis

This paper investigates the effect of sex-differences in turnover on the wages and employment of women relative to men. Using data from the 1967 Survey of Economic Opportunity, it is estimated that at least two-thirds of the relative wage differential between men and women within occupations is accounted for by sex-differences in turnover and training. In addition, the relative number of women employed in an occupation varies inversely with the amount of on-the-job training, as measured by the rate of wage growth experienced by white males in the occupation. No attempt is made to compute possible biases arising from the interaction between market discrimination and sex-differences in labor force behavior.