The gender wage gap over the life cycle

Includes bibliographical references.The primary research focus of my paper is to examine the life-cycle earning differences between men and women to draw some conclusions as to the sources of these differences. My goal is to explore the question of whether the male/female differences in wages converge over the life-cycle. To examine this issue, I use the dataset contains a variety of demographic and employment-related variables (age, marital status, education, hourly wage, number of children, and race) that are factors affecting the gender wage gap. I hypothesize that women's work effort is reduced during childbearing years, leading to an increase in the wage gap. However, this is reversed in later years, leading to a decrease in the wage gap. The study suggests that at younger ages, the female to male wage gaps widens. At older ages, however, wage gap decreases. This research is important because it examines how women are improved by education and how increased work experience affects the wage gap. My research will result in a better understanding of how the labor force treatment of women has changed based upon their experience, age, marital status, education, and other employment-related variables