Paul Muller,  from VU University Amsterdam, will present is research.

Do Wage Negotiations Contribute to the Gender Wage Gap? Evidence from Expatriates in the Netherlands

This study examines whether gender differences in wage negotiations contribute to the gender wage gap. To isolate the importance of wage negotiations for earnings, we exploit a substantial negative wage shock among mid- and high-earning migrants in the Netherlands once their tax benefits (the “30%-rule”) expires. Expiration occurs after 5 to 10 years in the Netherlands, and reduces net income often by at least 10,000 Euro annually, generating a strong incentive to renegotiate the wage. Our findings reveal that men experience an average wage increase that is approximately 1.5 percentage points higher than that of women. The difference is particularly pronounced among employees with higher earnings. These results show that wage negotiations explain a large part of the 9.4% unadjusted gender wage gap in our sample. Using an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, we find that approximately half of the negotiation gap is related to gender differences in individual and job characteristics, while the other half remains even after controlling for a wide range of characteristics.