Occupational gender pay gap and segregation in the European Union

We analyze whether female occupations have lower returns and if these are responsible for occupational gender pay gap. We define female occupations as those occupations with more than 72.6% women employed, mixed occupations those occupations where the share of women is between 42.5-72.6% and male dominated occupations as those with a female percent of less than 42.5%. Previous papers find that both men and women earn less in female occupations. Using the European Structure of Earnings 2006, we find that the relationship between the proportion of�female in an occupation and occupational average wages for men and women is non-linear. Further the results show that for men being employed in a female occupation yields the lowest returns whereas for women being employed in a mixed occupation has the lowest returns. Our results show that contrary to expectations the gender pay gap seems to be driven by mixed occupations suggesting that once occupational characteristics are fully controlled for, promotion mechanisms in mixed occupations could be detrimental to women.