IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ausman/v51y2026i3p799-828.html

Gender wage gaps in Chinese corporate hierarchies: Low at the top, higher at the bottom

Author

Listed:
  • Leo Bao

    (Department of Banking and Finance, Monash University, Clayton, Caulfield East, Melbourne, VIC, Australia)

  • Conggang Li

    (School of Accounting, Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance, Shanghai, China)

  • Dongxu Li

    (Laboratory of Digital Finance, Department of Finance, School of Economics, Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics (WISE), Xiamen University, Xiamen, China)

Abstract

Does the magnitude of the gender wage gap vary across job layers? By examining data encompassing “high-profile†managers across listed firms in the Chinese stock markets spanning from 2008 to 2019, our study reveals no significant gender disparity in the wages of CEOs. However, a pronounced wage gap emerges between men and women in positions other than CEOs within the C-Suite, with the disparity widening as one descends further down the job layers. These findings remain robust when accounting for manager turnover, employing various matching methods, and considering proxies for gender preferences across firms’ provinces. Consequently, solely focusing on compensation at the upper echelons of the job ladder may underestimate the extent of the gender wage gap. JEL Classification: J16, J13, M12

Suggested Citation

  • Leo Bao & Conggang Li & Dongxu Li, 2026. "Gender wage gaps in Chinese corporate hierarchies: Low at the top, higher at the bottom," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 51(3), pages 799-828, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:51:y:2026:i:3:p:799-828
    DOI: 10.1177/03128962251347141
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03128962251347141
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/03128962251347141?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:51:y:2026:i:3:p:799-828. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.agsm.edu.au .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.