Sticky Floors and Glass Ceilings: Gender Wage Gap in Egypt

The fact that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has the lowest labor force participation rate for women in the world has been extensively studied, but discrimination in pay against working women has received considerably less attention. Using recently available datasets, this study examines the distribution of wages (inequality) across men and women employed in the public versus the private sector in Egypt. The analysis shows that because working women tend to be more educated than working men, the gender wage gap would have been larger if women had the same endowments. Quantile regressions and recentered influence functions show that the gender wage gap is wide at the top of the distribution, primarily in the public sector, which is a sign of a glass ceiling. The gap is also wider at the bottom of the wage distribution in the private sector, a sign of sticky floors.HIGHLIGHTS The Egyptian public sector has a relatively equitable gender wage structure, except for the top jobs.The gender wage gap is much larger in Egypt’s private sector for the low paid.Since lower-educated women often do not work, the gender pay discrimination in Egypt might be even greater than observed.Policy interventions are needed to prepare women for leadership positions and to increase their promotion opportunities.