'Contented Female Worker' or '(Gender) Discrimination' Paradox? How Women and Men Perceive the Fairness of Their Own Wages

Abstract:
Claudia Diehl, Julia Lang und Susanne Strauß

The "gender wage gap" is very prominent not only in academic but also in public debates. This may be one reason why, according to recent studies, its acceptance withers and the so called "paradox of the contented female worker" no longer holds. We examine this phenomenon from a different perspective. We start from another paradox, the so-called "integration paradox" which suggests, among other things, that perceptions of discrimination are more pronounced among ethnic minority members who are better educated and identify more strongly with the host country. It has been explained by the fact that perceptions of discrimination reflect not only actual experiences of discrimination, but also aspirations for equal treatment and sensitivities to unequal treatment.
We use linked survey and administrative data to assess whether the way women think about the fairness of their own wages is more in line with the "contented female worker paradox" or with what we call the "gender discrimination paradox". In other words: Are women more likely than men to perceive their wages as fair, even when they earn less than comparable workers, as one would expect from the " contented female worker paradox"? Or are they more likely than men to perceive their wages as unfair, even when they earn as much or more than comparable workers, as one would expect from the "gender discrimination paradox"? Or are there (no longer) any differences in the way men and women perceive the fairness of their wages? In sum, the gender differences we find are more consistent with the "gender discrimination paradox" than with the "contented female worker paradox".