Analysing the glass ceiling and sticky floor effects in Bangladesh: evidence, extent and elements

With deep-seated gender imbalances prevalent in Bangladesh, it is compelling to understand how those women, who do manage to get employed, are faring in terms of equity. A popular approach involves analysing the gender wage gap across the entire distribution. With the assistance of the latest data from QLFS 2016–2017, the gender wage gap is decomposed, with selection issues addressed by Buchinsky (J Appl Econom 13(1):1–30, 1998) method. The paper has then proceeded to posit the existence of a strong sticky floor effect and a weaker glass ceiling effect in Bangladesh, with discriminatory rewards to observed characteristics being the dominant feature of the observed wage gap across the entire distribution. Women face discrimination at the bottom end chiefly due to differences in returns. On the other hand, women at the top are subject to extensive discrimination despite being superior to men in terms of endowment. Consequently, low-earning women require access to jobs which reward their skills as much as their male counterparts; the same holds true for the high-income group. There is also evidence of selection bias for both genders. Policy prescriptions based on these findings and potential avenues for further scope concerning the paper are also mentioned in the end.