Unions, Occupational Career Change, and Gender Inequality: Using Current Population Survey Panel Data to Assess Police Wage Change

A large body of literature describes the occupational gender wage gap at the national labor market level as well as in specific occupations. Yet, among those studies of within-occupational inequality, few have focused on how occupational career change affects gender wage inequality. With an increasing number of female workers entering into the police labor force as well as the high turnover rate in the police sector, it is important to explore wage changes in this highly unionized and hyper-masculine occupation. Using two-wave panel data from the Current Population Survey Merged Outgoing Rotation Group (CPS-MORG) from 1979 to 2016, this study examines how change in occupational career along with change in union membership may lead to different wage rewards or penalties for police men and police women. Our findings reveal that individuals experience a large increase in wages when joining the police occupation, and this wage bonus is greater for women than for men. Furthermore, individuals joining the police as well as a union see a wage bonus, but wage loss when leaving the police and a union. Overall, police men have a larger wage loss than police women when leaving the police force and losing union membership. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.