Abstract: Previous research has shown that occupational characteristics holds important explanatory power on the earning gap between men and women in China’s labor force. However， it remains unclear as to through what mechanisms occupational characteristics actually contribute to the earning gender gap. Some studies lack a detailed occupational classification system， whereas others only consider sex composition of each occupation but overlook the role of occupational skills and working conditions. Further more，existing studies also neglect the regional differences in the effects of occupational characteristics. This study addresses these shortcomings. We construct a series of occupational characteristics indicators using the data from the Chinese census in 2010 and O*Net occupational database from the United States. We then combine the occupation -based data with individual workers’ data from China Family Panel Studies（CFPS） in 2010 and conduct a systematic analysis of the mechanisms of occupational characteristics on the earning gender gap. Our study finds that the gender effect on income after controlling a series of occupational characteristics is basically the same as the gender effect obtained by controlling 193 specific occupation types.The Oaxaca decomposition shows that sex composition within occupations as well as gendered occupational skills are the two important mechanisms for occupational characteristics to influence the earning gender gap, while the sex difference in working environment cannot be used to explain the gender income gap. In addition, our analysis confirms the heterogeneity in income returns for occupational characteristics in regions with different levels of economic development.

Key words: occupational gender segregation, occupational characteristics, gender inequality, decomposition, regional heterogeneity