著者

野崎 祐子

出版者

生活経済学会

雑誌

生活経済学研究 (ISSN:13417347)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.22, pp.151-166, 2006

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The working environment for women has improved since the late 1980s. Firstly, the higher education female ratio for full time employees has increased. Secondly, female employment opportunities have expanded by changes in the labor market system, such as implementation of the Equal Employment Act of 1986, Amendment/Expansion of the Child-Care Leave Law of 1990 and Amendment of the Labor Standards Law. On the other hand, while the gender wage differential tends to be narrowing in the long run, it has not been influenced by these laws. As for the wage differential factors, there is an area which is not explainable by analysis of the individual attribute differences of employment tenure, kind of job and the working environment, such as corporate size. Hence, discrimination exists. What effect does the increase in human capital caused through higher education and expansion of employment opportunities have on the wage differentials? By focusing on human capital factors, such as educational background and potential ability, this paper examines the wage differentials by decomposing them into wage differential endowments and discrimination. As a result, it was found that there is less discrimination towards women who are graduates of university, than women who are graduates of high school. This means that more than half of the differential can be removed by combining together the differences caused by endowments. In view of this finding, it was proposed that there is a need to employ Positive Action for actively utilizing women.