Age, Gender and Migration Status on the Labour Market – Do Advantages and Disadvantages Accumulate As Workers Get Older?

This paper analyses the situation of older workers from the perspective of the status of a proportion of them as a minority, namely their membership in an immigrant community, as well as from the perspective of gender. We also present the problem of the accumulation of certain advantages and disadvantages during the life course of individuals in the context of the socio-demographic characteristics they possess. Our analyses draw on data from the SOEP (German Socio-Economic Panel from 1991 to 2012), distinguishing between populations with and without a migration background. Hourly wage regressions controlling for selection bias using Heckman procedure have been estimated in our analysis.

The results show that initial disadvantages in female wages accumulate over their lifespan, resulting in big differences at older ages. Regarding migration status, no significant disadvantages in wages are observable at early stages. However, disadvantages of men and women with direct migration experience arise and increase with age, resulting in lower earnings for older workers with direct migration experience. Finally, we observe that wages of individuals with an indirect migration experience grow even more than those with no migration background. No evidence of intersectionality between gender and migration status has been found.