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Is There a Glass Ceiling over Europe? Exploring the Gender Pay Gap across the Wages Distribution

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Author Info
Wiji Arulampalam
Alison Booth ()
Mark L. Bryan

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Abstract

Using harmonised data from the European Union Household Panel, we analyse gender pay gaps by sector across the wages distribution for eleven countries. We find that the mean gender pay gap in the raw data typically hides large variations in the gap across the wages distribution. We use quantile regression techniques to control for the effects of individual and job characteristics at different points of the distribution, and calculate the part of the gap attributable to differing returns between men and women. We find that, first, gender pay gaps are typically bigger at the top of the wage distribution, a finding that is consistent with the existence of glass ceilings. Second, for some countries gender pay gaps are also bigger at the bottom of the wage distribution, a finding that is consistent with sticky floors. Third, the gender pay gap is typically higher at the top than the bottom end of the wage distribution, suggesting that glass ceilings are more prevalent than sticky floors. Fourth, the gender pay gap differs significantly across the public and the private sector wages distribution for each of our EU countries.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 510.

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Length: 51 pages
Date of creation: Jan 2006
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Handle: RePEc:auu:dpaper:510

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Related research
Keywords: glass ceilings; sticky floors; quantile regression; public sector; gender pay gaps.;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Claudio Lucifora & Dominique Meurs, 2004. "The Public Sector Pay Gap in France, Great Britain and Italy," CHILD Working Papers wp04_04, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Booth, Alison L. & Francesconi, Marco & Frank, Jeff, 2003. "A sticky floors model of promotion, pay, and gender," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 295-322, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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    Other versions:
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    Other versions:
  7. Juan J. Dolado & Vanesa Llorens, 2004. "Gender Wage Gaps By Education In Spain: Glass Floors Vs. Glass Ceilings," Working Papers wp2004_03, CEMFI. [Downloadable!]
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    Other versions:
  11. Alison L. Booth & Marco Francesconi, 2003. "Union coverage and non-standard work in Britain," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 55(3), pages 383-416, July.
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    Other versions:
  13. Wiji Arulampalam & Alison L. Booth & Mark L. Bryan, 2004. "Training in Europe," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(2-3), pages 346-360, 04/05. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Christopher J. Ruhm, 1998. "The Economic Consequences Of Parental Leave Mandates: Lessons From Europe," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 113(1), pages 285-317, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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