Occupational segregation and the gender wage gap across the unconditional wage distribution: Findings from Serbia in a period of Covid-19 uncertainty

This paper examines the impact of one-digit occupational segregation on the gender pay gap in Serbia across different quantiles of the unconditional wage distribution covering a recent period of the Covid-19 pandemic. Using LFS data for 2019 and 2022, the study investigates the occupational gender pay gap using the Brown, Moon, and Zoloth (1980) approach modified to incorporate a more accurate occupational distribution by gender at specific wage quantiles. Our results reveal that most of the gender pay gap along the unconditional wage distribution is driven by the unequal treatment of women within occupations, particularly in higher-paid jobs. Gender segregation as measured at the one-digit-level, on average, exerts little impact on the pay gap. However, occupational segregation has a detrimental effect on women in jobs at the lower end of the pay distribution, while favouring women in jobs at the higher end of the pay distribution. Overall, occupational segregation remains stable across the observed period implying that the Covid-19 pandemic exerted no lasting adverse impact on the Serbian occupational wage structure for both gender groups across the unconditional wage quantiles.