Brechas en remuneración por género en Colombia: un estudio comparado de metodologías de medición

Labor discrimination is a primary issue, which has to be faced by several population groups, among them women. When a worker is paid lower even though he/she has the same qualifications or productive characteristics than other workers, it is said that he/she are discriminated. The aim of this paper is to analyze the earnings gaps associated with gender considering different statistical methodologies, and to develop a comparative and unified outline. To do so, hourly labor income is considered as the reference, and there are estimated conditional mean earnings gaps (Mincer, 1974), through the conditional distribution (Koenker & Bassett, 1978), and the corrections of selection bias are made (Heckman, 1979; Neuman & Oaxaca, 2004). Likewise, decompositions of the earnings gaps in endowments and coefficients effects are calculated (Oaxaca, 1973; Blinder; 1973; Machado & Mata, 2005; Melly, 2005). The main result is the evidence of the gender earnings gaps, and the large extent of it is explained by discrimination. Besides, the gap is higher in the bottom and the top of the conditional distribution. As a result, this empirical evidence shows the importance of promote public policies that diminish informality, guarantee equality in management jobs and make labor institutions stronger.