Decomposing Gender Wage Differentials in Urban Ethiopia: Evidence from Linked Employer–Employee (LEE) Manufacturing Survey Data

Abstract

This study estimates the magnitude of gender wage differentials for a sample of workers from the Ethiopian manufacturing sector using the traditional Oaxaca–Blinder and an augmented Cotton–Neumark methodologies. In doing so, it separates part of the estimated log of gender wage differential explained by differences in human capital characteristics between men and women from that which is not explained by such differences. The latter is known in the literature as “treatment” component or “discrimination” due to differing pay structures for the two gender groups. Accordingly, it is found that in Ethiopia's manufacturing sector men on average get up to 30% more than women depending on the measure used. However, once we control for a number of individual and establishment level characteristics, the level of wage premium for men over women is close to 5% or around 12 Ethiopian cents per hour. Out of this, both decomposition procedures estimate that close to 60% of the premium is a result of discrimination (different treatment of men and women in the labour market). Using an augmented decomposition technique, it is found that out of the 60% “discrimination component” close to 13% is due to men's treatment advantage in the labour market and the remaining 47% is due to women's treatment disadvantage. Also it is found that firm level characteristics are important contributors to the total discrimination component. Without controlling for establishment level characteristics, the discrimination component would have been around 27% indicating that ignoring establishment characteristics in decomposition exercises would result into a biased estimation, and in this case it would have underestimated the level of discrimination by close to 50%.     

Occupational Segregation and Gender Wage Differentials: Evidence from Malaysia

In Malaysia, the participation of women in the labor market has increased over time. However, occupational segregation and wage differentials continue to be prevalent between men and women in the labor market. The present paper investigates gender‐related occupational segregation and wage differentials based on data collected from 7135 working households in Peninsular Malaysia in 2011. The wage decomposition model introduced by Brown et al. (1980) is used to examine the determinants of gender‐related wage differentials. The results suggest that differences within occupations account for the largest portion of the wage gap between men and women. The results also indicate that wage discrimination within occupations plays an important role in the gender wage gap, while sample selection bias plays an important role in the examination of gender wage gaps.     

Market wage or discrimination? The remuneration of male and female wool spinners in the seventeenth‐century Dutch Republic1

In the historical debate, the gender wage gap is usually attributed either to productivity differences or to gender discrimination. By analysing a newly constructed series of spinning wages in the seventeenth‐century Dutch Republic, the wages of male and female textile workers for the same work could be investigated. At first sight, the evidence on equal piece rates for spinning men and women seems to rule out wage discrimination. Nevertheless, more deeply rooted gender discrimination resulting from the segmented seventeenth‐century labour market restricted women's access to many professions. Exactly this segmentation determined differences in wage earning capacities between men and women.     

Labour market discrimination in the North West province of South Africa

This article provides an econometric estimate of labour market discrimination in the North West province of South Africa. Using data obtained from the October 1995 Household Survey, it was found that in 1995 statistically significant gender discrimination exists against women in North West's labour market. The male discriminatory wage advantage of 127 per cent and the female discriminatory disadvantage of 195 per cent were ascribed to the overrewarding and underrewarding of some personal characteristics of males and females, respectively. Productivity differentials of 40 per cent in favour of females and a premium paid to women measuring 71 per cent also exist. Discrimination explains 50 per cent of the wage gap between genders, while productivity differentials and the premium account for 13 and 37 per cent respectively. The study supports 'affirmative action' and suggests policies that aim to alter the occupational distributions, and these may need to target educational decisions made prior to labour market entry.     

Gender Discrimination and Worker Selectivity: A Comparison of the Self-employed and Wage Earners

This study compares the size and nature of the gender earnings differentials for the self-employed and wage earners in Korea, taking into account the workers’ self-selection of each employment type. The two-stage estimates of the earnings equation, corrected for worker selectivity, are used to decompose the gender earnings differentials into productivity-related and discriminatory factors. Our results suggest that the size of the gender earnings gap is larger in the wage sector than in the self-employment sector, but not by large margin, and so is the discrimination effect when not controlled for worker selectivity. With worker selectivity controlled, the discrimination effect is greatly intensified in the wage sector, while it becomes not significant in the self-employment sector. These findings imply that the observed gender earnings gap in the wage sector is largely ascribed to discrimination against women, while the gender earnings gap in the self-employment sector is mostly due to productivity difference that, in part, is caused by worker selectivity.     

Something in the way she moves: a fresh look at an old gap

In this paper, we propose a new decomposition as a useful complementto traditional methods of explaining the gender pay gap andthe pay gap between full-time and part-time women. We decomposeaverage earnings into the contribution of the average startingwage for workers entering paid work from non-employment, averagewage growth for those in continuous employment, and the fractionof workers entering employment. We use this to inform discussionof the pay gap, first, between men and women and, second, betweenfull-time and part-time women. Comparing men and women usingdata drawn from the British Household Panel Survey, we findno significant differences in wage growth whilst in continuousemployment: the source of the gender pay gap comes from theentrant pay gap and the share of entrants. The study of longer-runchanges leads us to expect a modest further narrowing of thisgap. Comparisons of full- and part-time women indicate no differencein entry pay shares and little difference in wage growth. Thebulk of the full- to part-time gap is explained in terms ofthe fact that women working part-time are much more likely tobe entrants to the labour market.     

健康人力资本与性别工资差异

现有对性别工资差异的研究大多是基于教育、经验等人力资本对工资的影响进行分析而忽视了健康人力资本的作用。本文运用中国健康与营养调查数据,将健康人力资本引入工资决定模型,对我国劳动力市场上健康人力资本对工资的影响以及性别工资差异进行了实证分析。研究发现：健康人力资本是影响我国居民工资收入的重要因素;我国劳动力市场上存在明显的性别工资差异,女性工资显著低于男性;利用Oaxaca—Cotton的分解方法发现性别工资差异中大约只有20％可以被个体特征合理解释,余下的部分被认为是对女性的歧视和没能观测到的因素所致。健康人力资本对工资的边际贡献在性别之间的差异是性别工资差异的重要来源。     

Effect of Korean trade union on wage discrimination between regular and irregular workers

Whether the dual labor market structure implied by employment type and unionization causes wage discrimination is an intriguing and relevant policy question in the context of South Korea. This study examines the effect of trade unions on wage discrimination against irregular workers by extracting and comparing the ratios of the discriminatory wage gap by employment type between unionized and non-unionized workplaces. As per the analysis, all generalized decomposition frameworks show that the presence of trade unions expands discrimination regardless of the employment type. In addition, the effects of unionization on the degree of discrimination differ by factors characterized by the dual labor market. The effects are statistically significantly greater for women, youth, service industries, and white-collar jobs.     

Public–private sector segmentation in the Pakistani labour market

This study investigates public–private sector wage differentials for male and female waged employees in Pakistan. This is done using latest nationally representative data from the Pakistan Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) 2005. We adopt three methodologies to obtain robust estimates of the wage differential and the results reveal that public sector workers enjoy large wage premia. The gross pro-public wage differential is much larger for women than for men. Our findings also show that while private and public sector workers’ differing characteristics ‘explain’ a larger proportion of the private–public wage gap for men, this is not the case for women.     

Labor market segmentation by industry sectors and wage gaps between migrants and local urban residents in urban China

This paper explores the influence of labor market segmentation by industry sectors on the wage gap between rural-to-urban migrants and local urban residents in China in the 2000s. Using Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) survey data and the results based on the Brown decomposition method, the results indicate that the influence of intra-industrial differentials is greater than the influence of inter-industry differentials in both 2002 and 2013. The influence of the explained component of the intra-industry differentials is larger in both 2002 and 2013, and the influence of the unexplained component of the intra-industrial differentials rises steeply from 2002 to 2013. These results show that the individual characteristic differentials (e.g. human capital) in the same industry sector is the main factor causing the wage gap in both 2002 and 2013, and the problem of discrimination against migrants in the same industry sector became more serious from 2002 to 2013.     

Gender,productivity, and the nature of work and pay: evidence from the late nineteenth‐century tobacco industry

Women have typically been paid less than men throughout history. We investigate earnings in Swedish cigar making around 1900. Strength was unimportant, yet the gender wage gap was large. Differences in characteristics, such as age and experience, and different jobs within firms, account for two‐thirds of the gap overall, and the entire gap for piece‐rate workers. Firms were as willing to employ women as men in the better‐paying piece‐rate section, and women were willing to take those jobs. In contrast, discrimination was extensive in the time‐rate section. Men in this section benefited from greater outside opportunities and customary wages elsewhere. Theory holds that labour market discrimination will reduce profitability, and make firm survival harder, a proposition that has never been tested historically. We find that cigar firms that feminized their workforces most extensively were most likely to survive. Product market competition prevented firms employing (overpaid) men to any great extent. We argue that economic historians must interpret industry‐specific gender wage differentials in the context of workers' outside opportunities, and in the context of product markets, which can—and in this case did—limit firms' room for manoeuvre.     

The gender wage gap in Myanmar: Adding insult to injury?

Using two surveys from 2017, we analyze the gender wage gap for urban workers in Myanmar. We start from a standard wage equation and condition on education, experience, health and a small set of household demographic attributes. Subsequently we control for differences in occupational choice and sector of employment. We estimate the models with sample selection correction and this leads to estimated average wage offers that are lower than the observed average wages for women. Selection into wage work results in a workforce where female wage-workers have higher levels of education compared to their male counterparts. However, average wages for female workers continue to be 29% lower than male average wages. Differences in observable attributes do not account for this gap. Instead, it is associated with a lower base wage and lower remuneration of women’s experience. Going beyond the traditional decomposition methods, we utilize our matched employer–employee survey to generate exact comparisons of female and male production workers with equal levels of education and experience, employed in the same enterprises. Even in this setting, we find a gender wage gap of 13%. Our analysis thus indicates discrimination against women in Myanmar’s labor markets.     

Wage differentials between urban and rural-urban migrant workers in China

Since the end of the 1980s, the number of migrants working in the urban labor market has increased dramatically. However, migrant workers are treated differently from urban workers. In this paper we examine the labor market discrimination against rural migrants from the point of view of wage differentials using CHIP-2007 data. We apply Jann pooled method to deal with index number problem and use Heckman two step model to correct selection problem when decomposing the wage gap. The decomposition results show that a significant difference in wage gains persists between the two groups as late as 2007. In 2007 migrants only earned 49% of urban workers' income and 17% of the wage gap cannot be explained by observed factors. In detail, differences in educational attainment, work experience and distribution across industry, occupation, and ownership of enterprises account for most of the explained wage gap.     

Equal Convergence? Convergence Patterns Among Immigrants by Occupation

This study examines the immigrant-native wage gap in the United States using 2019 Annual Social and Economic Supplement data from the Current Population Survey. Ordinary least squares regression analyses were used to estimate the wages of immigrants while controlling for human capital characteristics, sociodemographic factors, and time since arrival in the United States. The results demonstrate that the wage gap converges with more time spent in the United States, likely due to increased work experience and language proficiency, but does not completely diminish. Separate regressions are conducted for different occupational groups. Occupations are shown to be a large contributor to the differential, as wages differ significantly more in unskilled occupations such as manual labor or transportation. The possibility of labor market discrimination is explored as a reason for the wage gap, with the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition showing that only 68% of the wage gap can be explained by the included explanatory variables.

     

城市外来劳动力的性别收入差距与工资歧视———基于非条件分位数回归的分解方法

内容文章利用非条件分位数回归的分解方法对2011年城市外来劳动力群体的性别工资差距进行了分析.研究发现:(1)城市外来劳动力群体中,性别间受教育程度的差异已经变得不太显著,但在职业方面针对女性外来劳动力的“粘性地板”现象仍然十分突出.(2)人力资本禀赋和就业职业特征对男性与女性外来劳动力工资的影响程度有所不同,不同收入分位数上的影响系数也有明显的差异.(3)性别歧视是造成外来劳动力性别间收入差距的主要原因,而男性与女性劳动者工作经验的差距以及工作经验收益率的差异已经取代教育因素成为了性别收入差距中的突出问题     

Why is the gender earnings gap greater in Korea than in the United States?

It has long been recognized that the gender earnings gap varies across countries. This paper examines the relatively higher gender earnings gap found in the Korean labor market compared to the US labor market. Using the data set representative of the population for both countries, I found that the significant part of the differences in the gender earnings gap simply arise from the differences in the observed characteristics of women among two countries. In particular, relatively lower labor market experience, current job tenure, and educational attainment by Korean female workers play dominant roles in explaining the observed higher earnings gap. In addition, wage structure and labor market discrimination seem to be against Korean female workers compared to US female workers. J. Japanese Int. Economies 21 (4) (2007) 455–469.     

Does microcredit reduce the gender gap in employment? Evidence from Egypt

In Egypt, there is a remarkable gap between men's and women's participation in the labour market. In this study, we examine the impact of microcredit on the labour supply of men and women and subsequently investigate whether microcredit can reduce the employment gap between men and women in Egypt. We find a negative effect of microcredit on men's employment, but a positive effect on the employment of women. Borrowing from a microcredit source increases the probability of women working by 8.5 percentage points and mainly affects self‐employed work. We also find a positive effect of microcredit on work in small businesses. This finding suggests that women can use microcredit to open small shops or household businesses. Finally, using decomposition analysis, we find that microcredit reduces the overall employment gap between men and women by 0.743%.     

Examining employment discrimination in South Africa, 1997–2016

This study examines employment discrimination by race and gender in 1997–2016 by employing a sample that represents the labour force (excluding informal sector workers, agricultural workers, domestic workers, self-employed and employers) aged between 15 and 65 years. Probit models are conducted to estimate labour force participation, employment and occupational attainment likelihoods. This is followed by the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, and the results indicate that the unexplained component of the white–African employment probability gap reveals a downward trend in absolute terms in 2002–2014, but in relative terms it still accounts for about 50% of the gap in 2016. The unexplained component is most dominant in the male–female employment gap decomposition. While these results suggest that employment discrimination (unexplained component) against Africans and females remains serious, the improvement of education and skills level of the workseekers (explained component) from the previously disadvantaged groups remain crucial to improve their employment prospects.     

The Chinese State Enterprise Sector: Labour Market Reform and the Impact on Male–Female Wage Structure

The paper examines the wage structure in the Chinese state enterprise sector between 1981 and 1987. This period is of particular interest given the introduction of major labour market reforms in China during the early 1980s. In essence the reforms represented a movement away from administratively determined prices towards a market–oriented system combined with a relatively flexible system of labour allocation. The Juhn, Murphy and Pierce (1991) decomposition is employed to shed light on the role of changing labour market institutions over the period.
JEL classification : J 31; J 16     

Wage comparison by gender and the effect of job segregation: The case of Taiwan

This paper examines the wage differential between the genders in a newly industrialized economy-Taiwan. The objective is to verify the existence and magnitude of the Taiwanese wage differential (or discrimination as some would term it) and contrast it with findings in the United States.The gender gap was estimated for the private sector and the public sector respectively. It was found that wage discrimination against females does exist. The magnitude of the “discrimination” falls within the same range as the empirical estimates for the U.S. In Taiwan, however, the wage discrimination appeared to be slightly more severe in the public sector.A measure for the discriminatory effects of the “occupational segregation” was proposed and implemented. Contrary to common belief, the “occupational segregation” was not an important factor in wage discrimination. Nor did the disparity of jobs distribution in terms of “industry” generate any significant level of wage discrimination. The main source of gender discrimination (in terms of wage rates) came from the lower returns to the “productivity” characteristics (experience, education, tenure, etc.) and not from seemingly popular hypotheses of occupational segregation (or, in more general terms, job segregation). This is in sharp contrast to previous studies.