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This article examines the gender wage gap in the Spanish hospitality industry versus the rest of the economy. Decomposition techniques are applied to a nationwide representative sample that includes matched employer–employee data allowing an accurate quantification of the phenomenon and its determinants. The methodologies used allow us to examine the average gender wage gap and also how this gap behaves throughout the wage distribution. According to the results, the gender wage gap in hospitality is rather significant (although slightly lower compared with the rest of the economy) and exhibits a steeper profile along the wage distribution. A large part of the gap is explained by observable characteristics, as female hospitality workers have lower levels of seniority than men, are overrepresented in low-skilled occupations, have less supervisory responsibilities, and are segregated into low-wage firms. Although potentially direct discrimination seems to be lower in hospitality, it is not a negligible problem, as, in its most conservative measure (namely, when observationally identical male and female employees working in the same firm are compared), it accounts for as much as 0.05 log points or 30% of the raw gender wage gap. The evidence also shows that the particularly intense gender wage gap observed in the uppermost part of the wage distribution in the hospitality industry arises because more qualified women in the sector are doubly penalized by an intense segregation into comparatively worse jobs and by an unfavorable wage treatment with respect to comparable men, which is consistent with the glass-ceiling phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines wage differences across Spain's NUTS‐2 regions along the entire wage distribution based on matched employer‐employee microdata from 2006 to 2014. Unlike previous related studies, we properly control for differences in regional purchasing power parities, which are very large in practice. Although part of the raw regional wage differences observed is explained by differences between regions in productive structures, and, to a much lesser extent, in labor forces, noteworthy, very similar throughout the wage distribution regional differences net of composition effects arise even after controlling for a broad set of individual and firm characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The article examines relative wages of immigrants in Spain, with a particular focus on the impact of the Great Recession. The empirical analysis is restricted to men and is based on matched employer-employee microdata and the decomposition techniques of Juhn et al. (1991, 1993) and Fortin et al. (2011). Our results show that the significant native-immigrant wage gap that exists both in terms of average wages and of differentials along the wage distribution is essentially explained by differences in the endowments of observed characteristics so that, in general, immigrants tend to receive a similar wage treatment than Spaniards with analogous observed attributes. On the other hand, the Great Recession has had a noticeable impact on the relative wages of immigrants, given that the significant increase of the native-immigrant wage gap observed during the previous expansionary period was mitigated during the economic downturn due to composition effects arising from the severe employment destruction pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the origin of differences between wages in the hospitality sector and the rest of the private sector in Spain. The evidence obtained for the 2002–2010 period shows that the wage disadvantage of hospitality presents an increasing profile along the wage distribution so that it is particularly relevant for those earning comparatively higher salaries. In contrast with other low-wage sectors, lower wages in hospitality are explained almost entirely by the specific characteristics of its workers and jobs (particularly their lower educational qualifications and their higher presence in low-skilled occupations), and not by the existence of lower rewards to those characteristics. Highly qualified individuals are however an exception since they suffer a wage penalty for working in the sector. Furthermore the analysis shows that pay inequality is substantially lower in the hospitality sector and that it is not due to the relative characteristics of its workers and jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the increase in inequalities following the Great Recession, studies on wage bargaining systems have increasingly focused on wage inequality. This research examines wage inequality associated with collective bargaining levels in Spain, based on matched employer–employee microdata and quantile regression methods. These methods are applied across the wage distribution, following the method proposed by Firpo et al. (2011), to estimate wage premiums associated with agreement levels and to decompose the wage differentials observed at different points of the wage distribution. From the evidence obtained it can be concluded that, although the higher wages found in firm-level agreements are explained by the better observed characteristics of firms and workers covered by these collective agreements, there remains a positive wage premium. Although this premium is seen throughout the wage distribution, it favours mostly workers in the middle and upper-middle end. This slightly increases wage inequality in comparison with sectoral agreements. In contrast, workers without collective bargaining coverage generally suffer a wage penalty. This penalty is only observed on the left of the wage distribution. It becomes a significant wage premium in the upper end of the distribution, which implies a significant increase in wage inequality. In short, the evidence of this research suggests that reducing the coverage of collective bargaining could be associated with a significant increase in wage inequality. A better policy option for countries with a predominant sectoral model, such as Spain, would be to move towards an organized decentralization model. This would cause significant gains in employment as suggested by OECD (2019) and only a slight increase in wage inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]