Gender Wage Differentials Research Articles

Industry Wages Across Countries and Over Time: A New Database of Micro Survey Data

This paper presents a newly collected database on industry wages. The underlying data are micro datasets collected through nationally representative household surveys which are mostly conducted by national statistical agencies. In comparison with wage measures based on macroeconomic data sources, we find that industry wages based on micro survey data are more reliable. Furthermore, data from nationally representative micro surveys are becoming increasingly available, thus allowing for better coverage, especially of low‐income countries. The database provides a reliable source of data for research on inter‐industry wage structures and gender wage differentials, across countries and over time. It may also serve as a basis for further research on the determinants and implications of inter‐industry and gender wage variations.

Gender Wage Differences in the Czech Public Sector: A Micro-level Case

Abstract The aim of this study is to estimate the unexplained gender pay gap in individual departments of a Czech hospital, to find out whether this gap varies between departments and, if so, to identify the possible causes of these differences. To estimate the unexplained part of the gender pay gap, we use the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT), and to identify the causes behind differences in the unexplained gender pay gap we use a linear regression model. We find that the ATT varies significantly between departments. To explain these differences, we use selected characteristics of the departments: the department’s size, the proportion of women in the department, and the gender of the departmental head. We come to the conclusion that women’s wages increase relative to male wages as the proportion of female employees grows. On the other hand, the unexplained gender wage gap is not proven to be lower in smaller or female-led departments.

Gender wage differential in private and public sector employment

PurposeThis paper aims to analyse the magnitude of the gender wage disparity in the public and private sectors in Mauritius across both mean differentials and overall wage distribution. The paper then decomposed the gender wage differential using the Oaxaca and Blinder (1973) decomposition technique.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses cross-sectional data from the Continuous Multi-Purpose Household Budget Survey (CMPHS), from 2006 to 2013. The sample size on average is around 12,000 households surveyed per year.FindingsThe results reveal that that gender wage differentials are prevalent in both economic sectors; however, the disparity is more pronounced in the private sector. In addition, the differences in wages are larger at the bottom compared to the top end of the wage distribution, suggesting the presence of sticky floors. Lastly, it was observed that the unexplained wage gap (discrimination) is higher in the private sector than in public sector across the years.Originality/valueThe literature on the gender wage gap in Africa is limited. This paper adds to the existing literature on gender wage differential with an analysis of the gender wage disparity across the public and private sectors in Mauritius.

Decomposing Gender Wage Differentials Using Quantile Regression: Evidence from the Lebanese Banking Sector

This paper investigates gender pay inequality in the labor market of a developing country. Our empirical investigation uses data derived from a sample of employees in the Lebanese banking sector for the years 2008 and 2014. Using Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition, the results reveal that the unexplained component of the gender wage gap, attributed to discrimination, represents a substantial share of the total gap. A surprising result is that the contribution of human capital to the gender wage gap is negative, suggesting that wage discrimination is the main explanation for the gap. Utilizing the Machado-Mata methodology to decompose the wage gap across the entire wage distribution, our findings indicate that the unexplained component of the raw gender wage gap is more pronounced at the low and middle ranges of the distribution. However, the explained component dominates at the top of the distribution, suggesting that earnings gaps are fully explained by observed characteristics.

Wage Differentials in Cameroon: A Gendered Analysis

This study investigates gender wage differentials using pooled 2005 and 2010 Cameroon labour force surveys. Decomposition of the returns to endowment component reveals that men were overpaid, while women were underpaid on the average and across percentiles. Education, hours worked, agricultural employment and urban residence were contributing in that order in widening the gender wage-gap in terms of endowments, male advantage and female disadvantage. As a policy option, reducing human capital and labour market constraints that provoke the differential pricing of endowments held by men and women, and the differential access to endowments between them should be considered.

The Gender Wage Gap in Offered, Observed, and Reservation Wages for Spain

ABSTRACTThe literature on the gender wage gap and wage discrimination has exclusively analyzed observed wage differences, ignoring inactive or unemployed individuals. In order to obtain a more complete overview of gender wage differences, this paper analyzed inactive or unemployed individuals in terms of offered and reservation wages in Spain in the years 1994, 2000, and 2006. The results show that the observed wages give a more positive perspective of the gender wage gap than offered ones. Furthermore, the existence of an important gender wage gap for reservation wages has been noted, which is possibly because women take charge of household and family caregiving tasks to a greater degree than men. The results show that Spanish women had higher reservation wages and lower offered wages than men, which explains their lower participation in the labor market.

Gender Inequalities in Employment and Wage-earning among Economic Migrants in Chinese Cities

Background: Recent trends show an unprecedented feminisation of migration in China, triggered by the increasing demand for cheap labour in big cities and the availability of women in the labour market. These trends corroborate the evidence that non-agricultural work and remittance from urban labour migrants have become the major sources of rural household income. Objective: This paper investigates the extent of gender inequalities in job participation and wage earning among internal labour migrants in China. We hypothesize that female migrants in cities are economically more disadvantaged than male migrants in the job market. Methods: We use data from the 2010 National Migrant Dynamics Monitoring Survey conducted in 106 cities representing all 31 provinces and geographic regions. The study applies the standard Heckman two-step Probit-OLS method to model job participation and wage-earning, separately for 59,225 males and 41,546 females aged 16-59 years, adjusting for demographic and social characteristics and potential selection effects. Results: Female migrants have much lower job-participation and wage-earning potential than male migrants. Male migrants earn 26% higher hourly wages than their female counterparts. Decomposition analysis confirms potential gender discrimination, suggesting that 88% of the gender difference in wages (or 12% of female migrant wage) is due to discriminatory treatment of female migrants in the Chinese job market. Migrants with rural hukou status have a smaller chance of participation in the job market and they earn lower wages than those with urban hukou, regardless of education advantage. Conclusions: There is evidence of significant female disadvantage among internal labour migrants in the job market in Chinese cities. Household registration by urban and rural areas, as controlled by the hukou status, partly explains the differing job participation and wage earning among female labour migrants in urban China. Comments: Female migrants have higher opportunity costs and family constraints to participate in job market than male migrants. Higher job participation among male migrants suggests that men face stiff competition for jobs in cities and are more likely to accept jobs with a lower wage offer.

Long Work Hours, Part-Time Work, and Trends in the Gender Gap in Pay, the Motherhood Wage Penalty, and the Fatherhood Wage Premium

We assess how changes in the social organization and compensation of work hours over the last three decades are associated with changes in wage differentials among mothers, fathers, childless women, and childless men. We find that large differences between gender and parental status groups in long work hours (fifty or more per week), coupled with sharply rising hourly wages for long work hours, contributed to rising gender gaps in wages (especially among parents), motherhood wage penalties, and fatherhood wage premiums. Changes in the representation of these groups in part-time work, by contrast, is associated with a decline in the gender gap in wages among parents and in the motherhood wage penalty, but an increase in the father-hood wage premium. These findings offer important clues into why gender and family wage differentials still persist.

Wage Decompositions Using Panel Data Sample Selection Correction

This paper analyzes wage decomposition methodology in the context of panel data sample selection embedded in a correlated random effects setting. Identification issues unique to panel data are examined for their implications for wage decompositions. As an empirical example, we apply our methodology to the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data with which we investigate gender wage differentials in the German Labor Market. Our results highlight the sensitivity of inferences about potential discrimination to how elements of the panel data selection model are assigned to explained and unexplained components.

When Do Gender Wage Differences Emerge? A Study of Azerbaijan's Labor Market

When Do Gender Wage Differences Emerge? A Study of Azerbaijan's Labor Market

Tiempo cotizado, ingresos salariales y sus consecuencias para las pensiones: diferencias por género al final de la vida laboral

The study of gender differences in the labour trajectories of women and men between 45 and 65 years old, enable to measure their impact on gender wage gap. The analysis of several aspects of these paths, such as the length in the Social Security system, periods of interruption throughout their working lives or the number of employment interruptions, shows that women spend more and longer periods out of employment. This fact notably explains the observed gender wage differentials. Consequently, if women suffer a double penalty, because they accumulate fewer periods of contribution and have lower incomes, their retirement pensions will always be lower than those of men. The recent reform of the pension system and tightening of requirements may worsen their situation and likely increase the gender gap in contributive pensions.

DIFFERENCES IN DECLINE: QUANTILE REGRESSION OF MALE–FEMALE EARNINGS DIFFERENTIAL IN MALAYSIA

Semiparametric estimation has gained significant attention in the study of wage inequality between men and women in recent years. By extending the wage gap at the mean towards the entire wage distribution using quantile regression, it enables researchers to ascertain the direction and the proportions of differences in characteristics and returns to these characteristics at different parts of the wage distribution. This line of research has been prominent in western society but has not yet been explored in the context of the Malaysian labor market. To fill the gap, this paper examines the gender earnings gap in Malaysia between 1994 and 2004 using Malaysia Population and Family Survey data. The gender earnings differential, as measured by the log percentage point is 53% in 1994. The difference reduces to 45% for a restricted sample and 42% for the unrestricted sample in 2004. However, it was found that the gender wage gap reduces as we move up the wage distribution. This suggests that women suffer from a sticky floor effect, i.e., the gender wage gap is bigger at the bottom of distribution. More importantly, the observed gender wage differentials do not reflect differences in the productive characteristics of the workers. In fact, it accounts for very little, if any, of the gap in Malaysia. However, the extent of the price effect is larger at the bottom end of the distribution than at the top.

Glass Ceilings versus Sticky Floors: Evidence fromSoutheastAsia and an International Update

Using counterfactual decompositions combined with quantile regression, we investigate the pattern of gender wage differentials inAsian andLatinAmerican countries and combine the findings with existing evidence forEuropean and other mostly developed countries. While in the group ofLatinAmerican countries glass ceilings are prevalent, no clear evidence of glass ceilings is found in the group ofAsian countries where, generally, sticky floors or a mixed pattern is the norm. The findings are robust with as well as without occupation controls. In addition, analysis by sector points to glass ceilings in the public sector in most countries, while in the private sector the patterns vary. Combining the new evidence from the present study with existing evidence (in total we consider 60 countries), a comprehensive global picture of gender wage differentials is provided. Possible explanations for differences in patterns of gender wage differentials are discussed.

The gender wage gap in highly prestigious occupations: a case study of Swedish medical doctors

The gender wage gap within a highly prestigious occupation, the medical profession, is investigated both longitudinally and cross-sectionally using Swedish administrative data. This is done by investigating: to what extent the gender wage gap among physicians varies between fields of medicine (within-occupation segregation) and across family status; whether there is an association between parenthood and wages among physicians and, if so, whether there is a gender difference in this association; and changes in the gender wage gap among physicians over time. The results indicate a large overall gender wage difference for medical doctors. Even when gender differences in specialization are taken into account, men have higher wages than women do. For both men and women physicians, there is a positive association between parenthood and wages. The longitudinal analyses show that the gender wage gap among physicians was greater in 2007 than in 1975.

Glass ceiling and sticky floors: hurdles for Mauritian working women

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to analyse the gender wage differential at different points of the wage distribution. It investigates the existence of glass ceilings and sticky floors in the Mauritian labour market. There is no previous empirical work studying gender inequality in the labour market for the small island economy of Mauritius.Design/methodology/approach– To investigate whether wage differentials are higher at the top or bottom ends of the wage distribution, the authors examine the wage disparities across different quantiles of the wage distribution. The gender wage disparities are assessed using quantile regression and decomposition techniques at the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th quantiles. Survey data from the Continuous Multi-Purpose Household Survey from 2006 to 2013 is used.Findings– The results reveal that sticky floors are more pronounced than glass ceilings over the years. Further, for the years 2008, 2010 and 2012, it is noted that at the 75th quantiles, the gender wage differentials started to rise showing glass ceiling effects. The combination of both sticky floors and glass ceilings are characterised by the unexplained factors providing evidence for gender discrimination in the Mauritian labour market.Originality/value– This is the first study analysing the glass ceilings or sticky floors in the Mauritian labour market. Though the research is limited to Mauritius, the latter being a small island economy can serve as a case study for other island economies and also for the African continent.

Gender and occupational wage gaps in Romania: from planned equality to market inequality?

In Romania, the communist regime promoted an official policy of gender equality for more than 40 years, providing equal access to education and employment and restricting pay differentiation based on gender. After its fall in December 1989, the promotion of equal opportunities and treatment for men and women did not constitute a priority for any governments of the 1990s. This paper analyzes both gender and occupational wage gaps before and during the first years of the transition to a market economy and finds that the communist institutions did succeed in eliminating the gender wage differences in female- and male-dominated occupations but not in gender-integrated occupations. During both regimes, wage differences were, in general, much higher among workers of the same gender working in different occupations than between men and women working in the same occupational group, and women experienced a larger variation in occupational wage differentials than men. JEL codes: J24; J31; J71; J78; P26; P27

Is There a Double‐Negative Effect? Gender and Ethnic Wage Differentials in Italy

AbstractThis paper investigates the gender and ethnic wage differentials for female migrants in Italy by applying the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, with and without Heckman correction, to account for self‐selection into the labour market. The gender wage gap is nearly 15 per cent, more than 60 per cent of which is unexplained by observable differences. The ethnic wage gap is much larger (39 per cent), but endowments explain 53 per cent of the gap. We also estimate the double‐negative effect of being both female and a migrant. A female migrant earns 42 per cent less than an Italian male; the unexplained component is estimated to be 53–65 per cent. Results are robust to different specifications.

The Effect of Female Managers on Gender Wage Differences

The paper is devoted to gender wage differences; it especially focuses on the impact of the gender characteristics of the manager on gender wage disparity. Under the social identity theory, women in managerial positions, that can affect the wage of their subordinates, are likely to evaluate female employees better than male employees. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the gender characteristics of middle managers on the wages of directly subordinated rank-and-file employees using a variation within the firm. We have used two methods to consider the effect of the manager gender characteristics on subordinates: the estimation of the wage function and the average treatment effect on the treated, both supplemented by a matching procedure. We concluded that women in middle management in comparison to their male counterparts have a lower tendency to apply wage discrimination against women. The presence of a female head of department led to a decrease in the gender pay gap by almost 7 percentage points.

Occupational segregation, selection effects and gender wage differences: evidence from urban Colombia

This paper assesses the effects of occupational segregation on the gender wage gap in urban Colombia between 1986 and 2000. The empirical methodology involves a two step procedure where by the occupational distributions ofworkers by gender aremodelled using a multinomial logit model in the first stage. In the second stage, the multinomial logit estimates are used not only to derive a counterfactual occupational distribution of women in the absence of workplace discrimination but also to correct for selectivity bias in thewage equations for each occupational category using the procedure suggested by Lee (1983). Besides the explained and unexplained components in conventional decompositions of the gender wage gap, this methodology differentiates between the justified and unjustified effects of the gender allocation ofworkers across occupational categories. The results for urban Colombia indicate that controlling for selectivity bias at the occupational category level is found to be relevant in all years reviewed in this study. They also suggest that a changing composition of the female labour supply in terms of un observables (i.e., ability and motivation) is playing a role in the dramatic reduction of the observed wage gap.

Gender gap and labour market participation

Purpose– The measurement and comparison across countries of female conditions in labour market and gender gap in employment is a very complex task, given both its multidimensional nature and the different scenarios in terms of economic, social and cultural characteristics. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– At this aim, different information about presence and engagement of women in labour market, gender pay gap, segregation, discrimination and human capital characteristics was combined and a ranking of 26 European countries is proposed through the composite indicator methodology. It satisfies the need to benchmark national gender gaps, grouping together economic, political and educational dimensions.Findings– The results show that female conditions in labour market are the best in Scandinavian countries and Ireland while many Eastern and Southern European countries result at the bottom of classification.Research limitations/implications– In order to take into account the subjectivity of some choices in composite indicator construction and to test robustness of results, different aggregation techniques were applied.Practical implications– The authors hope that this new index will stimulate the release of a sort of best practices useful to close labour market gaps, starting from best countries’ scenarios, and the launching of pilot gender parity task forces, as it happened with the Global Gender Gap Index in some countries. Finally, relating gender gap indexes with country policies frameworks for gender inequalities and the connected policy outcomes, it is possible to evaluate their effectiveness and to identify the most adequate initiatives to undertake because policies reducing gender gaps can significantly improve economic growth and standard of living.Social implications– The analysis gives a contribution in the evaluation of the policies and regulations effectiveness at national level considering the existing welfare regimes and the associated gaps in labour market. It can help policy makers to understand the ramifications of gaps between women and men. The Gender Gap Labour Market Index is constrained by the need for international comparability, but limiting its analysis to European countries; it has been based on ad hoc indicators concerning developed economies and could be readily adapted for use at the national and local levels.Originality/value– In this paper the authors propose a new composite indicator index specifically focused on gender gap in labour market. Several papers analysed gender differences in wages, employment or segregation, but few of them consider them together, allowing to get a satisfactory informative picture on gender inequalities in labour market and studying in deep its multiple aspects, including discrimination indicators ad hoc calculated, giving to policy makers an useful tool to evaluate female employees conditions and put them in relation with the different input factors existing within each country.