• Gender Wage Gap in Ghana: Evidence from Employer Employee Data

    Author(s):

     Seid Mohammed Yimer


    seidmohfatieg@gmail.com
    2025-01-06 09:15:44

    25 Downloads 32 Views

    Abstract

    This paper investigates the sources of the gender wage gap in Ghanaian manufacturing firms using demand and supply side determinants of individual wage. We find that men’s wages are markedly higher than women’s wages across the entire wage distributions. However, the gender pay gap is pervasive at the bottom quantile, suggesting that poor women are more disadvantaged. Women are disproportionately sorting into low-paying job, which accounts for 38.8% of the raw gender wage gap at the 10th quantile while its effect is nil at the 90th quantile. Even after controlling for gender difference in individuals’ endowments and sorting effects, firms pay different wage premium for females and males, and this widen the within firm gender wage gap. Firms’ wage policies (firm effect) in Ghana increase the gender wage gap, with the effect pronounced at the top quantiles. Firms that increase within the wage gap include those having decentralized wage bargaining, firms established long ago in 1985, less labour-intensive firms, those without f ierce competition, firms with inadequate supervision and those located in Cape Coast. Gender difference in observed labour market experience alone explains 12% of the gender pay gap in the 10th quantile and about 7% in all other quantiles. Firms effect, gender sorting and labour market experience are the most important sources of gender wage gap across the wages distribution though their total effect is substantial for the poor women.

    Keywords
    Gender; wage gap; quantile regression; Ghana.

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