Reaching the Top or Falling Behind?: The Role of Occupational Segregation in Women's Chances of Finding a High-Paying Job Over the Life-Cycle

Using a two-stage decomposition technique, this paper analyzes the role of occupational segregation in explaining the probability of women vis-a-vis men of finding high-paying jobs over the life-cycle. Jobs are classified as highly-remunerated if their compensation exceeds a threshold, which is set at different values to span the entire wage distribution. Results obtained from pooled CPS surveys indicate that the importance of occupational segregation remains virtually unchanged over the life-cycle for low- and middle-wage workers. However, women's access to high-paying occupations becomes significantly more restricted as workers age, suggesting a previously undocumented type of `glass ceiling' in the U.S.