Gender inequality and employment policy in the public sector a cross-national comparison of women managers' wages in five industrialized countries

The present study draws on the Esping-Andersen approach to the classification of welfare capitalist regimes to test whether the determination of managerial wages among women varies by type of welfare regime. Using a representative sample of public- and private-sector employees from five industrialized countries, the study shows that the joint effect of gender and employment sector on wages depends on the type of welfare regime and employment sector. Public-sector positions affect female managers' wages in conservative countries, whereas private-sector placement has a significant effect on female managers' wages in liberal and conservative countries. The joint gender/employment-sector effect has no impact on the determination of wages in social-democratic regimes. These findings suggest that the elaboration of models explaining gender-based differences in wages in a cross-national perspective need readjustment to control for country-level and policy-level effects with respect to women's employment and wage attainments.