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Glass Ceiling or Sticky Floor? Examining the Gender Pay Gap across the Wage Distribution in Urban China, 1987-2004

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  • Chi, Wei
  • Li, Bo

Abstract

Using 1987, 1996, and 2004 data, we show that the gender pay gap in the Chinese urban labor market has increased across the wage distribution, and the increase was greater at the lower quantiles. We interpret this as evidence of the “sticky floor” effect.We use the reweighting and recentered influence function projection method proposed by Firpo, Fortin, Lemieux (2005) to decompose gender pay differentials across the wage distribution. We find that the gender differences in the return to labor market characteristics, also known as the “discrimination effect” or “unexplained gender pay gap”, contribute most to the increase in the overall gender pay gap. The Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux method allows us to further decompose the gender pay gap into the contribution of each individual variable. We find that the “sticky floor” effect may be associated with a particularly low paid group of female production workers with relatively less education working in non-state owned enterprises.

Suggested Citation

  • Chi, Wei & Li, Bo, 2007. "Glass Ceiling or Sticky Floor? Examining the Gender Pay Gap across the Wage Distribution in Urban China, 1987-2004," MPRA Paper 3544, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:3544
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    Cited by:

    1. Paul Carrillo & Néstor Gandelman & Virginia Robano, 2014. "Sticky floors and glass ceilings in Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 12(3), pages 339-361, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    glass ceiling; sticky floor; gender pay gap; wage distribution; Influence Function;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

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