The Structure of the Wage Gap for Temporary Workers: Evidence from Australian Panel Data

摘要

This study uses panel data for Australia to estimate the wage differential between workers in temporary jobs and workers in permanent jobs. It is the first study to use unconditional quantile regression methods in combination with fixed effects to examine how this gap varies over the entire wage distribution. While the wages of fixed-term contract workers are found to be similar to those of permanent workers, low-paid casual workers experience a wage penalty and high-paid casual workers a wage premium compared to their permanent counterparts. Temporary agency workers also usually receive a wage premium, which is particularly large for the most well paid.