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The Global Gender Gap in Labor Income

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  • Tewodros Makonnen Gebrewolde
  • James Rockey

Abstract

This paper introduces a new measure of economic gender inequality (EGI) based on the ratio of women’s share of national labor income to men’s. This measure captures both the principles of equal pay for equal work and non-discrimination. Importantly, it can be calculated from existing data and is comparable across countries and time. We show that EGI has only been improving slowly and that current aggregate EGI is equivalent to 1.2 billion women working for nothing. Moreover, this gap is expected to increase in coming decades. Instrumental variable estimates suggest that while increases in income reduce EGI, living standards will have to triple for equality to be achieved in countries such as Mexico or Turkey.

Suggested Citation

  • Tewodros Makonnen Gebrewolde & James Rockey, 2017. "The Global Gender Gap in Labor Income," Discussion Papers in Economics 17/14, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    • Handle: RePEc:lec:leecon:17/14
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic Gender Inequality; Global Distribution of Income; Modernization Hypothesis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • D33 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Factor Income Distribution
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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