“Family-Friendly” Fringe Benefits and the Gender Wage Gap Aaron Lowen & Paul Sicilian Published online: 12 February 2008 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008 Abstract Evidence suggests a large portion of the gender wage gap is explained by gender occupational segregation. A common hypothesis is that gender differences in preferences or abilities explain this segregation; women may prefer jobs that provide more “family-friendly” fringe benefits. Much of the research provides no direct evidence on gender differences in access to fringe benefits, nor how provision affects wages. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we find that women are more likely to receive family-friendly benefits, but not other types of fringe benefits. We find no evidence that the differences in fringe benefits explain the gender wage gap. Keywords Fringe benefits . Gender wage gap . Compensating wage differentials . National longitudinal study of youth Introduction While the gender wage gap in the United States is shrinking, the gender ratio in full- time median weekly earnings is still about 0.81 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2006). Some researchers argue that the gender gap is, at least partially, a compensating wage differential as women sort into jobs with characteristics they prefer. In particular, it is frequently asserted that women sort into jobs that offer “family-friendly” fringe benefits. This paper uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) to assess the extent to which differences in access to fringe benefits explain the gender wage gap. While we find some evidence of gender differences in the types of fringe benefits received, we do not find convincing evidence these differences explain gender differences in wages. J Labor Res (2009) 30:101–119 DOI 10.1007/s12122-008-9046-1 A. Lowen : P. Sicilian (*) Grand Valley State University, 480C DeVos Center, 401 West Fulton Street, Grand Rapids, MI 49504-6431, USA e-mail: siciliap@gvsu.edu A. Lowen e-mail: Lowena@gvsu.edu