This study seeks to reveal the heterogeneity in occupation-specific wage returns among graduates of the German vocational education and training (VET) system. We distinguish between VET graduates with and without a higher education entrance certificate (i.e. an Abitur). To implement our hierarchical multi-level analyses, we exploit the latest wave of the BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey from 2018. By estimating occupation-specific wage returns, we reveal gaps between VET graduates with and without an Abitur. Additionally, we analyse several occupational characteristics to show how they contribute to the gaps in wage returns between our study groups. Our results show that employees combining an Abitur with a VET degree achieve higher wage returns than those VET graduates without an Abitur across all occupations. Employees holding a VET degree without an Abitur display greater inequality of occupation-specific wage returns. Among the occupational characteristics, task composition is the main driver of the differences in wage returns.

本研究旨在揭示德国职业教育与培训（VET）系统的毕业生在特定职业的工资回报上的异质性。我们区分具有和没有高等教育入学证书（即Abitur）的VET毕业生。为了实施分层的多层次分析，我们利用了自2018年以来的最新一轮BIBB / BAuA就业调查。通过估算特定职业的工资回报，我们揭示了有和没有Abitur的VET毕业生之间的差距。此外，我们分析了几种职业特征，以显示它们如何导致我们研究组之间的工资回报差距。我们的结果表明，将Abitur与VET学位相结合的员工比在所有职业中没有Abitur的VET毕业生获得更高的工资回报。拥有VET学位但没有Abitur的员工表现出更大的针对特定职业的工资回报不平等。在职业特征中，任务组成是工资报酬差异的主要驱动因素。