How Unequally Has Equal Pay Progressed Since the 1970s?

This paper compares the gender gap in the pay of British, full-time workers from two cohorts, born in 1946 and 1958 and observed in their early thirties in 1978 and 1991 respectively. These dates are separated by 13 years of Equal Pay Legislation coupled with active labor market deregulation. Although women's human capital endowments had improved on average more than men's, there may have been little improvement in the differential treatment of the average woman in full-time employment. When the whole distribution of female earnings was considered, a general improvement in the treatment of women became apparent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]