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RWI Materialien #153

2022

Ronald Bachmann, Fernanda Martínez-Flores, Christian Rulff

Die Lohnlücke in der Zeitarbeit - Eine empirische Analyse auf Grundlage der Integrierten Erwerbsbiografien und der Verdienststrukturerhebung

Diskussionspapier

The wage gap between temporary and non-temporary workers in Germany is calculated based on different data sets, leading to different results. This article examines the wage gap in temporary employment using two databases, the Integrated Employment Biographies (IEB) of the Institute for Employment Research of the Federal Employment Agency and the Earnings Structure Survey (VSE) of the Federal Statistical Office. This study compares the aggregate statistics published based on these two data sources and discusses possible causes for differences in the wage gap. In a second step, the wage gap is re-estimated using various econometric methods that take into account a consistent sample and worker characteristics. The results of the study show that when calculating the wage gap using aggregate statistics the underlying sample should be comparable. The wage gap in monthly wages is slightly larger when IEB data in comparison to the VSE data, which is due to differences in the composition of the sample. Econometric analysis of monthly wages shows that the adjusted wage gap is significantly smaller than the raw wage gap for both data sets. An additional analysis of hourly wages based on the VSE data shows that the adjusted wage gap is close to zero. This suggests that both differences in sample composition and working hours are the main factors that explain the wage gap.

ISBN: 978-3-96973-116-1

JEL-Klassifikation: J01, J30, J31

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