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Gender Wage Gaps and Worker Mobility: Evidence from the Garment Sector in Bangladesh

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  • Woodruff, Christopher
  • Menzel, Andreas

Abstract

Data from 70 large export-oriented garment manufacturers in Bangladesh show that gender wage gaps are similar to those found in higher-income countries. Among pro-duction workers, women’s wages are 8 percent lower. We show that by combining short administrative panels, survey data from a representative sample of workers, and struc-ture, we can estimate how the wage gap evolves over workers’ careers. Gender differ-ences in internal and across-factory promotions contribute roughly equally to the emergence of the gender gap over worker careers. Differences in promotion rates ap-pear to arise mainly from career concerns rather than frictions coming from household responsibilities.

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  • Woodruff, Christopher & Menzel, Andreas, 2019. "Gender Wage Gaps and Worker Mobility: Evidence from the Garment Sector in Bangladesh," CEPR Discussion Papers 13577, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13577
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    Cited by:

    1. Fabry, Anna & Van den Broeck, Goedele & Maertens, Miet, 2022. "Decent work in global food value chains: Evidence from Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    2. Dhingra, Swati & Machin, Stephen, 2020. "The Crisis and Job Guarantees in Urban India," IZA Discussion Papers 13760, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Czura, Kristina & Menzel, Andreas & Miotto, Martina, 2019. "Menstrual Health, Worker Productivity and Well-being among Female Bangladeshi Garment Workers," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 203, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    4. Woodruff, Christopher & Macchiavello, Rocco & Menzel, Andreas & Rabbani, Atonu, 2020. "Challenges of Change: An Experiment Promoting Women to Managerial Roles in the Bangladeshi Garment Sector," CEPR Discussion Papers 15085, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. S M Fijul Kabir & Samit Chakraborty & S M Azizul Hoque & Kavita Mathur, 2019. "Sustainability Assessment of Cotton-Based Textile Wet Processing," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 1(1), pages 1-15, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender wage gaps; Export-oriented manufacturing; Monopsony in motion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology

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