title: Employer-sponsored health insurance and the gender wage gap.
abstract: During prime working years, women have higher expected healthcare expenses than men. However, employees' insurance rates are not gender-rated in the employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) market. Thus, women may experience lower wages in equilibrium from employers who offer health insurance to their employees. We show that female employees suffer a larger wage gap relative to men when they hold ESI: our results suggest this accounts for roughly 10% of the overall gender wage gap. For a full-time worker, this pay gap due to ESI is on the order of the expected difference in healthcare expenses between women and men.
authors.affiliation: School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University, Hulbert Hall 101, Pullman, WA 99164, USA. Electronic address: ben.cowan@wsu.edu.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cowan
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Economics, Kansas State University, 310 Waters Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA. Electronic address: benschwab@ksu.edu.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schwab
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States
keywords: Compensating differential; Employer-sponsored health insurance; Gender; Wages